County Raffle Tickets on Sale
By Reid Magney, La Crosse Tribune, Wis.
Feb. 1–La Crosse County kicked off its first “property tax raffle” Wednesday in an effort to shame Congress into restoring funding cuts to child support enforcement.
“La Crosse County would lose $150,000 (in 2008), while Wisconsin counties would lose almost $80 million in 2008, 2009 and 2010,” said County Administrator Steve O’Malley.
But rather than just call a press conference to complain about the cuts, O’Malley recently got the county board’s blessing to hold a raffle to draw more attention to the problem.
“We’re hoping to raise some dollars with the property tax raffle, but also get the attention of Congress and the state to reinstate the funding,” he said.
Players who buy a $5 ticket get a chance to win a top prize — “roughly equivalent to an average property tax bill of $3,500,” O’Malley said — plus a number of smaller prizes, depending on how many tickets the county sells before the April 17 drawing.
If the county sells all 10,000 tickets printed, it would bring in $50,000, half of which would go to prizes and half to the Child Support Agency.
“We have pretty low expectations about the money the county will raise,” O’Malley said. “We’re hoping to get a lot of attention on it, raise some dollars, but also really pressure Congress and the state to reinstate the funding.”
A $150,000 cut to the county would translate into three or four job cuts at the agency, which has a staff of 13 workers.
Where to get tickets
La Crosse County Treasurer’s office, 400 Fourth St. N., Room 1290, from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Onalaska Public Library, 741 Oak Ave S., Onalaska, Wis.
Holmen Area Library, 103 State St., Holmen, Wis.
Hazel Brown Leicht Memorial Library, 201 Neshonoc Road, West Salem, Wis.
John Bosshard Memorial Library, 1720 Henry Johns Blvd., Bangor, Wis.
Hillview Health Care Center, 3501 Park Lane Drive, La Crosse, 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Find more information, including a mail-order form, at www.lacrossecounty.org/Raffle.
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Copyright (c) 2007, La Crosse Tribune, Wis.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
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