ATLANTA — State officials are dipping into reserves to help pay for education programs funded by the Georgia Lottery for the first time in nearly a decade, as ticket sales lag behind the growth of the HOPE scholarship and statewide prekindergarten.

At the same time, leaders in the state Senate are pushing to expand the lottery-funded HOPE scholarship to help nearly 50,000 poor students pay to attend Georgia’s public colleges. A bill that would create a $30 million need-based grant program is getting support from Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Jack Hill, among other key Republican leaders.

“You could make a pretty good argument it’s not the time, but on the other hand it’s always the right time to do something to keep kids in college,” said Hill, a Republican from Reidsville. “There are a lot of kids in college today who are hanging on by a thread. This ensures we don’t lose a whole set of students.”

Georgia Student Finance Corp. leaders say the lottery-funded education programs — including free prekindergarten for thousands of Georgia 3-year-olds, HOPE scholarships and grants for technical college students — will cost $100 million more than what lottery ticket sales can fund for the fiscal year that begins July 1. That will mean tapping into a $900 million reserve fund for the first time since 2001.

It will also mean reducing textbook stipends for the more than 200,000 college students on the HOPE scholarship starting in 2012, the first step in a series of “triggers” set up by state law to rein in HOPE spending once the cost outpaces available money. The $300-per-year book money would be cut in half for all HOPE recipients who aren’t eligible for federal assistance for low-income students, said finance commission president Tim Connell.

The state has had to raid the rainy-day account to pay for lottery-funded programs three times in the lottery’s 17-year history: in 1997, 1998 and 2001, according to state documents.

Hill’s bill to create the need-based HOPE program passed the Senate education committee Wednesday and could be voted on by the full Senate as early as next week. He wants to give needy students up to $700 a year, even if they don’t qualify for the HOPE scholarship, which pays for tuition for students with at least a B average.

Cagle praised the bill for helping “deserving students who are most at risk of missing out on educational opportunities because of the economic climate.”

Hill said the grants would help a growing number of students who are struggling financially because of the nation’s financial meltdown, which has left tens of thousands of Georgians out of work and unable to help pay for their children’s’ education.

But he isn’t the only one vying for a piece of the lottery pie.

State schools superintendent Kathy Cox has called for lottery ticket prices to be raised to help fund K-12 education, which is entitled to lottery money by state law but hasn’t gotten any of the ticket revenue since 2003. Cox, who is running for a third term in office, said last week that lottery money could help soften the blow of hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts to the state’s public schools over the past few years.

The move is unlikely and hasn’t gained much support since Cox suggested it during a state Board of Education meeting and during an interview with CNN last week.

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Georgia Student Finance Commission: http://www.gfsc.org