Winning numbers
Maine eyes privatizing lottery
- State could bid out operations
- Program pays $16M to stores
Several states are considering privatizing their lottery programs in light of anticipated revenue shortfalls, and Maine’s lottery director says the Pine Tree state should be among them.
Dan Gwadosky said the state has explored privatization in the past but the move has been rejected. While selling the lottery’s revenue stream could bring a “considerable” one-time payment, privatization would spell a loss in the long term, he said. “We are mindful of Governor Baldacci’s charge to all state agencies, not just the lottery, that we need to continue to explore the most effective and efficient way to provide services,” Gwadosky said.
But several members of the Legislature’s Legal and Veterans Affairs Committee say it is worth another look, as some states are considering privatizing the operation of their state lotteries, rather than selling the revenue stream. “Absolutely we should look at it,” Sen. Debra Plowman, R-Hampden, the GOP senator on the panel, said. “We are doing way too much with the lottery staff that drives up the operational costs.” She added she’d like to see what interest the state would generate if it put lottery operations out to bid.
Sen. Nancy Sullivan, D-Biddeford, co-chair of the panel, supported exploring the proposal, but said she is concerned both about how an agreement could be structured to assure adequate state oversight and profits for a private operator, as well as the prospect that an operator could alter agreements with stores that have lottery machines.
The lottery pays more than $16 million a year in fees to those stores. “The lottery is huge for helping small businesses stay in business,” said Rep. Linda Valentino, D-Saco, a member of the committee. “I would rather be spreading this money out to small businesses than giving it all to some company that is running the lottery.”
But Valentino stressed that all aspects of lottery operations should be reviewed for efficiency. She said the state’s decision to sell the revenue stream from liquor sales hasn’t yielded the maximum return, so she opposes that approach to privatization.
Complicating efforts to privatize state lotteries are federal justice department rulings that say state lotteries, in order to operate under federal gambling laws, must employ government workers who are in control of the “day to day” operations of the lottery, Gwadosky said.
Auto loan co. wants to track drivers
- Firm queries state on GPS devices
- Legislator references Orwellian tactics
Those handy GPS devices that help you find a restaurant while driving around on vacation can also be used to track your car’s location. Just who should have access to that information is of growing concern to state officials in the wake of an auto lending company’s interest in installing GPS devices in vehicles it finances.
“We were asked by an out-of-state lawyer representing an auto finance company whether we would object to installation of GPS units on cars that serve as collateral,” Bureau of Consumer Credit Protection Superintendent Will Lund said. The query involved the secondary finance market for car loans, and was part an effort to better determine whether a loan contract was a good credit risk for the company.
Basically, a purchaser whose financing was handled by the company, which plans to sell the loan to the secondary market, would have a GPS device installed in the vehicle as a condition of completing the purchase. Data from the GPS would accrue during the weeks or months between the purchase and the sale of the loan to the secondary market.
Lund said the company’s lawyer stated the data from the device would help determine whether a person was working by analyzing their travel patterns. Similar use of GPS devices is widespread in commercial vehicles and rental cars. “I foresee a fairly small step from that to a more immediate situation in which the owners of the contracts are keeping an eye on the activities of a consumer,” Lund said.
In an e-mail to the lawyer, Lund said he could not find any authority of his office to block the use of GPS devices. The name of the lawyer and the finance company he represents were redacted in e-mails released by Lund, because the query was not an official request for a ruling.
The lawyer argued that a consumer “may waive whatever rights they may have to privacy” and said it happens frequently, such as when visiting a doctor’s office. “It’s one thing to track a driver using a company-owned vehicle or a rental car customer,” he wrote. “It may be another thing, from a privacy perspective, to put this technology on collateral owned by consumers.”
Sen. Elizabeth Schneider, D-Orono, co-chairwoman of the Legislature’s Business, Research and Economic Development Committee, said the query reminded her of the surveillance of citizens by government in George Orwell’s novel “1984.” “It’s 1984 in the year 2010,” she said. “I think we are all going to be fooling ourselves if we believe these finance companies are simply going to be using this for financing.”
Study: Older workers feel ‘devalued’
- Form of harassment unique to age group
- Benefit complaints more common
An ongoing study of Mainers in the workplace has detected a type of harassment unique to older workers — isolation and resentment from their younger counterparts.
The harassment is different from that experienced by young and middle-aged workers, which is principally sexual in nature, said University of Maine sociology professor Amy Blackstone, who is conducting the study. “They were not having the kinds of experience we usually think of when we think of harassment,” Blackstone said, “like being asked out on a date or being hit on or touched inappropriately.”
Many respondents expressed a sense of being “devalued” by their younger coworkers and that their life experience was not considered important, she said. “I am trying not to draw sweeping generalizations because this is an ongoing study,” she said, “but I am seeing some clear differences between older workers in the workplace and other workers.”
Blackstone said she was surprised, and pleased, at the number of respondents who wrote comments on the survey form. One woman wrote, “The young girls thought I should be home waiting to die,” when describing her workplace.
Several state programs, principally in the labor department’s career centers, try to dispel what Labor Commissioner Laura Fortman described as the “myths” of older workers. But developing respectful workplace environments is a “best practice” that can’t be legislated, she said.
Attorney General Janet Mills said her office receives few complaints from older workers, which are referred to the Maine Human Rights Commission. “The more prevalent complaint that we hear about is older workers being laid off just short of their retirement,” she said.
Mal Leary runs Capitol News Service in Augusta. He can be reached at editorial@mainebiz.biz. Read more of Mal’s columns here.
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