Schadenfreude

That’s the feeling this article inspires in me. An Ohio woman just won $162 million (well, $67 million actually, because she took the lump-sum payment) in the lottery. The local government officials were almost as excited as she was – after all, they figured they had just gotten a windfall of unexpected tax revenues! But it was not to be, because the city had neglected to include lottery winnings in the definition of income.

"It's not a good day for the city," Mayor Georgine Welo said Monday. "We were all excited until we went to go for the money and learned that we are not entitled to it. We are very saddened by the news."

Yeah, I’ll bet. It’s enough to make you weep – from laughing so hard. Hey, how about this: the city should take $2 of tax revenue and buy a lottery ticket for itself next week.