Perry: Lottery sale could bring $14 billion

Gov. Rick Perry was expected to propose privatizing the Texas Lottery to generate money for health care and education, and he didn't disappoint: The governor projects that selling the lottery off to a private operator could net the state at least $14 billion, he said in his State of the State address this morning in Austin.

The money would be used to form a $2.7 billion endowment for Texas' uninsured and a $3 billion fund for cancer research, Perry said; the remaining $8 billion would go to a public education endowment. Those funds would produce a combined $1.26 billion in interest payments each year, which would be used to support programs. "This moment in time is a unique opportunity to address great challenges and build the foundation for a future of unparalleled prosperity," Perry said.

But it's still not clear whether privatizing the lottery is an idea that'll actually fly. The proposal is already drawing fire from legislators, and there's still the matter of finding a company that would be willing to buy and operate the lottery. What's more, some observers wonder if it's right to sell state assets when there's no financial crisis ahead and whether private companies would market lotteries more heavily, leading to social problems. "The speaker has said that we're still taking a look at [the proposal]," Alexis DeLee, a spokeswoman for House Speaker Tom Craddick, told The Dallas Morning News. "We have a number of questions about it."