Compulsory city gambling??? But how else do you describe taking general city revenue to run lotteries with housing loans as the prizes? The saddest thing about this proposal is that for 99.999% (or thereabouts) of those forced to pay for the tickets (a.k.a. taxpayers, including even the poorest), only a handful of city employees will be allowed to win. And the winners could be quite well off already, apparently.
Nearly everyone except the wealthy (and certainly not forgetting the 1% extremely wealthy), feels the pressure of unaffordable local housing in the region. City workers are not the only people struggling to live and work. Shouldn’t anyone who pays for ticket be entitled to win a prize?
Is there a whiff here of misappropriating government funds, of a rigged lottery in which some are more equal than others?
Read more about San Mateo’s proposed seduction of its employees using OPM (Other People’s Money) in the Daily Journal: San Mateo scopes employee housing assistance
