LJWorld.com

• Email
• iPod-friendly
• Print

HAYSVILLE — If Kansas is serious about economic development, it will not give up the lottery, Lt. Gov. Gary Sherrer told the Haysville Chamber of Commerce on Thursday.

Economic development will be among the most important issues that the Legislature will address in the coming session, he said.

Lawmakers will decide this session whether to reauthorize the lottery, which funds the state's economic development program.

"I always tell people it is not gambling it is a tax on people who failed math," Sherrer said.

Kansas raises about $60 million through its lottery, money that lawmakers do not have the fiscal ability, nor the discipline, to replace from elsewhere in the budget, Sherrer told reporters later.

Before the lottery, economic development was very weak in Kansas, he said.

"If somebody works hard for their money, then they want to buy a lottery ticket, I'm not sure that I ought to go in and tell them they ought to take it and open a 401K fund," he said.

Sherrer's visit to this district home to the only state education board candidate who supported the standards de-emphasizing evolution and survived a primary challenge also provided an opportunity for the lieutenant governor to take some shots at a decision that makes it more difficult to attract companies to Kansas.

"It is devastating when you are the butt of national jokes ... and if you think it is bad here, you should have seen the international press," Sherrer said.

Sherrer said he could not prove that companies had refused to relocate here because of that decision, but at least one British company he had been working with declined to visit Kansas after the board's decision.

"The perception of the Kansas education system was damaged by that and it is going to take some work to restore," he said.

Relocating companies look for an educated labor force and want good schools for employees' children, Sherrer said.

His speech at the Haysville chamber was arranged by Wayne Holt, the Democratic candidate for the state board of education. The Republican lieutenant governor stopped short of endorsing anyone for the seat held by Republican incumbent Steve Abrams, who helped write the science standards.

The lieutenant governor told reporters afterward that he had contributed to Abrams' opponent in the Republican primary, but would not endorse anyone in the general election.

Sherrer said he is "philosophically in step" with the majority of the new members of the state board of education on the evolution issue.

Afterward, Holt said he has made the board's decision on evolution an issue in the race to unseat Abrams because that is what is on people's minds as he campaigns.

"The state board made a mistake, and I think it needs to be corrected," he said. "I really appreciate the lieutenant governor talking about perceptions."