Students Are Lottery Losers in New York

It was announced that the New York State Lottery is rolling with the times and making budget cuts.  This cut, however, is cutting college scholarships. Needless to say, there are many angry residents who think this is a bad way to cut back.

The New York Lottery has quietly halted its college scholarship program for more than 1,150 high school seniors, blaming the governor’s budget cuts.

One student from every high school in the state has been eligible for a $5,000 Leaders of Tomorrow scholarship since 2000.

The cut will save the agency, which took in about $7.5 billion in revenues last year, about $1.4 million.

A Lottery spokeswoman said the cut was necessary to comply with Gov. Paterson’s request that all agencies cut about 10% of their budgets.

The Lottery will not be cutting their $81.7 million dollar advertising budget however – defending that they make $5 for each dollar spent in advertising.  Officials from the Lottery say that they will reinstate the full scholarship monies next year.

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