The lottery pays for Illinois schools. Right?

SPRINGFIELD - Illinois politics and government aren't exactly known for their sterling reputations and commitment to honesty. We have one former governor in federal prison and another one just arraigned in court. With that as a backdrop and with thousands of Illinoisans rushing to file their income taxes before today's midnight deadline, the Daily Herald's Springfield bureau takes a quick look at some of the more prevalent myths about government that have become part of Illinois' notorious political history.

1. 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.

2. Gas taxes pay for road construction and repair.

This one's truer than the lottery tale, but many motorists might be surprised at exactly what they're funding when they pay at the pump. The state's gas tax is 19 cents per gallon, and that money along with various vehicle fees is supposedly earmarked for road and bridge work.

But over the years, money has been diverted to pay for other things, such as workers comp claims and group insurance costs for the department of transportation. It also helps pay for state police and secretary of state expenses under the argument that they're highway-related. And several lawmakers say road dollars are increasingly being used to prop up other, unrelated spending as the state's budget faces economic strain.

"It used to be the amount of money that was diverted only went for those activities that pertained to the highway portion. Now we've got that diversion up so high we are actually paying for services other than those that are related to the highway," said Sen. Dale Risinger, a Peoria Republican and former IDOT engineer.

Now there's discussion of raising the gasoline tax in order to pay for road and bridge construction.

The state also collects a sales tax on gasoline. That money does prop up regular state spending rather than road construction.

One more thing on gas taxes: The tollway doesn't get any of this money to pay for tollway repairs and construction, though tollway users still pay the tax like everyone else when they fill up at the pump. Tollway work is paid by toll collections.

And that brings us to -

3. The tollways were supposed to be freeways.

That may have indeed been the early intent, but it's hard to see it happening anytime soon. We went back as far as we could in state archives and found in 1967 lawmakers stressing the freeway aspect once the tollway construction debt was paid off.

But that debt continued as the tollway system grew and borrowed billions to be paid off over decades with toll collections. The original tollway that opened in 1958 was 187 miles long. Unfortunately, there are no records of legislative debates from that far back.

What we do know is that expansions over the years have increased the tollway's network to 286 miles and the tollway is currently paying off more than $3.2 billion in construction borrowing.

4. The Illinois budget must be balanced.

Indeed, the Illinois Constitution says the governor must submit a plan that's balanced and lawmakers must send him back one in which spending doesn't exceed the amount of money the state expects to get.

But the worst-kept secret at the statehouse is that the budget is often balanced only on paper and only then thanks to a few tricks. Gov. Patrick Quinn blew the whistle on these practices in his budget briefing book this year, in which he said, "For years, Illinois has delayed health care payments as a gimmick to balance the budget on the backs of Illinois health care providers."

The truth is Illinois has long carried millions, if not billions, of dollars in bills over from one budget year to the next in order to make spending look balanced. For instance, more than $800 million in bills owed to health care providers and other businesses and people who do work for or on behalf of Illinois were carried over from last year's budget to this year's budget.

5. There would be limits on how much you could lose on riverboat casinos.

Many lawmakers, like the general public, were surprised to learn when the first casinos opened that there were in fact no limits on how much a gambler could lose on the riverboats. After all, Rockford Democrat E.J. "Zeke" Giorgi, the sponsor of the first casinos gambling law, assured his fellow lawmakers back in 1990 that the plan they were about to vote on did indeed include a $500 limit on how much someone could lose per gambling excursion.

"Yes, $500. The limit is $500 in wagering chips," Giorgi told state Rep. Robert Churchill, a Lake Forest Republican, during that 1990 debate when Churchill pressed him on the loss limits.

Well, it turned out that provision was not in the final version. The omission was first declared an oversight, but Giorgi later said it was a mistake to ever consider limits.

Whether he knew the limits had been deleted and bluffed during the debate or it really was an honest omission remains one of the Capitol's many political mysteries. Giorgi died in 1993.

Myths: The budget has been balanced, kind of