2016 Oregon Lottery Local Control Act: A Citizens’ Initiative

Lottery Local Control Committee

The 2016 Oregon Lottery Local Control Act is a grassroots Citizens’ initiative that protects current Oregon constitutional requirements on spending lottery revenues while granting each County across Oregon the control of how these dollars are spent locally. Petitioners have begun gathering the 117,578 signatures required to place the initiative on the November 2016 ballot.

When passed, 50% of Oregon Lottery net proceeds would go back to the counties they were generated from using similar spending allowances that exist today. The Act protects all current Oregon Lottery spending constitutional requirements but would allow each County to decide how to allocate the 50% “Local Control” funds in the expanded categories of public education, economic development, public safety, or natural resources.

Each County in Oregon has unique needs and the Oregon Lottery Local Control Act would help to meet those needs. Each County across Oregon would receive more equitable distributions based on local sales and more importantly each County would be able to decide how to spend lottery revenues in those categories of public services that are so important to the health of our communities.

The Lottery Local Control Committee commissioned a large statewide poll of this measure using the exact approved ballot title language. Oregonians overwhelmingly support this measure as show below:

Voters would say YES to this measure by a three-to-one ratio!

Voters liked the idea of lottery proceeds being distributed to Counties based on lottery sales from each County (instead of by the State Legislature) by a margin of about 2.5 to 1!

The highest priority public funding needs across the state are Public Education, Public Safety, and Economic Development!

It’s clear to us that citizens across our great State agree that local control would lead to a more appropriate allocation of these public dollars. The one size fits all approach taken on by the State system doesn’t meet the unique needs of the different communities across the State and voters clearly see this as a way to make positive changes.

Downloadable petitions for individual signatures, ballot text, as well as a way to contribute, have been made available at www.lotterylocalcontrol.com. Please join us to help make a positive change for all of Oregon.