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Senior citizens share lottery's uncertain financial future By Chuck Plunkett Jr. TRIBUNE-REVIEW Sunday, November 4, 2001 Mary Whiteford jokes that since she hit 90, it's been harder to pay the bills. "When you live to be this old, you don't have anything in your pocket," said Whiteford, 93. "I was wiped out at the age of 90. All my savings were spent." It's hard to imagine Whiteford falling on hard times. In her white fur hat, elegant white sweater and cosmetic brooch, she looks like a winter princess. Calmly playing rummy with friends Felix DeLuca, 94, and Audry Johnson, 81, at the immaculate Penn Hills Senior Citizens Center, she seems almost safe. It's also hard for some to imagine that one of the key benefits that Whiteford and other senior citizens depend upon could fall on hard times. But the state lottery and its programs for the elderly are headed in that direction. To cover her $150 monthly bills for heart medications, Whiteford uses the lottery fund's Pharmaceutical Assistance Contract for the Elderly. PACE, as it's more commonly known, cuts the cost of prescription drugs for low-income senior citizens. Another program, PACENET, benefits seniors with slightly higher incomes. But programs that benefit the state's elderly are fast on their way to outstripping the lottery fund that pays for them. Projections show that the Pennsylvania Lottery will spend more money than it makes by 2003. The deficit is expected to grow deeper in 2004. Whiteford says she can't imagine what senior citizens like her would do without PACE. "We'd be in a bad way without it," she said. AT FIRST, A WINDFALL A generation has come to view the lottery's programs, established in 1971, as endless treasure. The lottery solved the problem of covering programs for the elderly without having to raise taxes. In the beginning, it worked like magic. Only half the money people gambled to win jackpots went into prizes. The rest went to PACE and other programs. But other games - like the multistate Powerball, with its heftier jackpots - have been cutting into the state's lottery business. And election-year politics have frequently produced more and more lottery-funded programs for seniors, historically a powerful bloc of voters. Now lawmakers are scrambling to figure out how to reverse the trend. "We have sort of gotten ourselves in a barrel of molasses here," said state Rep. Bill Robinson, a Schenley Heights Democrat. "It does not appear that we can come up with enough prizes or game solutions to keep up." Robinson wonders if talk around Harrisburg about adding Pennsylvania to a multistate lottery association would work. The problem for him is, he's read reports that show lotteries often become an addiction for the poor. As such, the games work as a regressive tax levied on those who can least afford it. Across the aisle, Rep. John A. Maher, an Upper St. Clair Republican, shares that concern. "I think we need to be very careful about responding to the warning sirens to expand the lottery," Maher said. A NEW APPROACH Maher and other legislators say it's time to examine the lottery from a fresh perspective. Specifically, lawmakers should question whether using a lottery to cover the cost of government programs is good policy, Maher said. "It doesn't matter if the money is coming from the lottery or from the general fund," Maher said. "Is this program a worthy role of government? If it is, then ... those programs need to be funded regardless of which bank account it's drawn from." But that would mean increasing taxes, and Maher and others - like fellow Republican Rep. Daryl Metcalfe of Cranberry Township, Butler County - worry that state government is already too large. "Continued expansion of government support of health care moves us closer to socialized medicine," Metcalfe said. Metcalfe opposes any move to expand the lottery. "If these programs had merit, they should have been funded out of the general fund instead of inventing a form of payment that becomes addictive for some people," he said. "None of us like to pay taxes, but all of us agree that a certain amount is necessary." Metcalfe said lawmakers should consider cuts to the state's welfare budget, now that that program has been scaled back. Any savings could go to prop up PACE or other programs in danger of losing money with the drop in lottery revenues. REDUCING DRUG COSTS Some legislators want to save money by negotiating better prices for prescription drugs. Rep. Dan Walko, a North Side Democrat, has introduced House Bill 1902, which mirrors a Senate bill sponsored by Michael A. O'Pake of Berks County. The bills would make the state's government drug plan part of an eight-state coalition that could gain better discounts on medications. The measure would even allow private companies with drug plans to join. Still another plan - this one promoted by Rep. Jeffrey Habay of Shaler Township - would use part of the state's tobacco settlement to cover lottery fund losses. But Habay, who has many elderly constituents, isn't interested in talking about cutting the fund's expenses. In fact, the Republican also would like to expand the lottery's rent rebate and property tax rebate programs. Chuck Plunkett Jr. can be reached at cplunkett@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7996