Potts served as the commission's chairman for 19 years from 1985 until 2003, helping the lottery become the state's second largest source of general fund revenue.

The governor's office projected earlier this year that general fund revenue would drop 5 percent this fiscal year.

In 2009, for the fourth consecutive year, the Medicare trustees determined that general fund revenue would exceed the threshold.

And in the crunch to cut the deficit, neither Congress nor the Administration has been willing to spend all the trust fund's revenues.

Personal income tax receipts now account for roughly half the state's general fund revenues, compared with only 18 percent in 1962-1963.

Commissions for brokers fell 27 percent, while mutual fund revenues plunged 52 percent, the securities association said.

Fifty-two percent of the district's general fund revenue comes from the state's foundation aid.

Yet Alaska, which receives about 86 percent of its general fund revenues from taxes on the oil industry, remains shaken.

As private enterprises, the airport properties would return to the city's property tax rolls and generate $212 million a year in general fund revenue.

The shift would save an estimated $51 million next year in general fund revenues, but critics say they fear a drain on the transportation fund's resources.