Lottery Sales May Benefit Outdoors Fund

Legislative budget writers on Friday voted to divert 1 percent of state lottery ticket sales to a special outdoor recreation trust fund to help ease the shortage of such facilities for Idaho’s growing population.

Senate Finance Chairman Atwell Parry of Melba pressed for the diversion to the State Trust for Outdoor Recreation Enhancement that he was responsible for creating a year ago.

The measure, which would put just over $1 million into the trust by mid-1997, cleared the Joint Finance-Appropriation Committee on a 17-2 vote. But not before conservative Republican Sen. Rex Furness of Rigby accused the majority of taking money from public school building maintenance.

The cash would come from the dividend the lottery pays annually - half going for general state government building needs and the other half divided among the 112 school districts for the building projects.

That dividend, pegged at $19 million this year, was projected to hit $21 million next year on an estimated $101 million in sales. But under Parry’s bill, the state and school districts would split just $20 million, with $1 million going to the recreation trust.