It has been 40 days since the City Hall of Pelotas sent to the Chamber the proposal to create a municipal lottery service whose funds obtained from the collection would be destined exclusively to the cost of public health.
However, despite not having provoked resistance from society in general or even from sectors, institutions or unions, which can be considered rare when it comes to bills from the Executive, the initiative remains stopped, without any progress in the process, either in the sense of approving or rejecting the text.
The delay calls attention because this was a proposition established from discussions that involved not only city hall members. Representatives of the Legislative had an active and important participation in the conception of the project and in the definition of the health area as the priority for the injection of LotoPel's money.
Therefore, the combination of these factors - relevance of the theme, inexistence of opposing movements and joint construction between the powers - would signal a path of understanding capable of speeding up the vote.
However, a kind of tug of war for the distribution of the lottery resource became public, albeit 100% for health. Among parliamentarians there is opposition that the total amount is managed by the Municipal Health Department (SMS). There are those who cover the largest portion of the trip directly to hospitals.
There is also the argument in favor of equal shares to health care and SMS homes, including the Municipal Health Fund as the beneficiary with a lower percentage. And, also, the possibility that the totality of the amounts obtained by LotoPel stay with the Fund and the release of the funds taking place from indicated and approved projects. Articulations that change the original project and, consequently, displease the Executive.
If it is a fact that health is an area with precedence in the attention of public authorities and that the municipal lottery aims to promote injection of investments, for the population waiting for doctors, exams, surgeries and other services in the public network, the lack of dialogue capable of indicating consensus on the matter sounds incomprehensible.
In Porto Alegre, for example, the law creating the municipal lottery is already enacted (aimed at improving public transport there). So, let there be a negotiation effort in Pelotas and seek understanding. It is not enough for the Executive and Legislative to praise the idea on paper, however good it may be.
Diário Popular Editorial
