Myths told by Illinois politicians

Well, the Daily Herald explored five myths from Illinois politicians, but I want to look at the one major one that should be of interest to everyone. Not everyone follows the state budget, tollways, casinos, or even road construction (even if that's important in and around city streets and expressways). This issue affects something that if it isn't important, it should be:

The lottery was supposed to pay for education.

Yes, millions of dollars from losing Illinois Lottery tickets go to fund public education.

The lottery began in 1974, but the money wasn't specifically earmarked for education until 1985. That year, a new law required all lottery profits go to the state's schools fund, which helps finance kindergarten through high school public education.

The big catch, however, is that there's no requirement for the lottery money to be on top of what was already there. So, as lottery money comes in, it frees up the other state tax money to spend elsewhere. How much education gets in the end is up to the annual political whims of state lawmakers and the governor.

Second, the millions from the lottery are a mere fraction of the overall public education budget. The lottery is projected to bring in $664 million for education spending in the coming year. By the time you add up all the state, federal and local tax dollars spent on education, the budget can top $20 billion, and even the lottery admits its contribution is about 3 percent.

But many people have a very different impression, through no fault of their own. They may have been swayed by the state's $300,000 TV ad blitz back in 1986 that reinforced the notion that children and their schools were winning big thanks to the lottery.

Well now we have a way to remove the burden of paying for public schools from the property taxes paid by individuals, families, and businesses.

Via Capitol Fax, a recent Question of the Day in fact