U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) offers up advice on lottery

Congressman Steve Cohen of Memphis, who authored the '02 Tennessee lottery proposal that was approved by voters in that state, offers up some advice on the implementation of the lottery, having gone through it himself in the Tennessee Senate prior to being elected to Congress. Cohen was interviewed by Rob Moritz of Stephens Media. His main points:

• Set the scholarship award high enough where it covers full tuition costs. TN settled on awards that did not fully cover tuition, and he believes that to be one reason that state now has a $460 million surplus in the lottery program;

• A government body should oversee and maintain the program (even though his state implemented a semi-public agency to run the lottery there). His reasoning behind having a public agency run the lottery is because the TN legislature has little control over the lottery board there, and Cohen believes the salaries set by the board are out of line with what TN voters want;

• Retention and Elibility: The Tennessee legislature initially set the bar at a place where many recipients of the scholarship were unable to retain it after a semester due to the requirement that they maintain a 3.0 (it's since been changed to 2.75 for the first 72 hours). Eligibility is another issue. If we're ambitious enough to pattern this after the El Dorado Promise, lottery revenue will likely dictate how each of these other issues are implemented.

These will include some of the items to be debated in the upcoming session as it pertains to implementing the lottery. Of course, Tennessee is just one model -- there are 41 others out there, and many (including Lt. Governor Bill Halter) would suggest looking at Georgia's Hope Scholarship model.