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Cleveland Plain Dealer
Why aren't
record lottery profits cutting your school tax bills?
Patrick O'Donnell, The Plain Dealer
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Monday's announcement that the Ohio Lottery made a
record profit of $1 billion in the last year raised - yet again - a
common question that arises each time schools seek a new levy or the
state sets new funding for schools.
Since all lottery profits go to schools, why are school taxes so high?
As reader Arthur Fayn put it, "Why am I still paying property taxes to
support the schools, and, why do the taxes keep increasing?"
And reader moobs_sbooms added, "How about putting that towards the
schools and eliminating the illegal school funding via property taxes!"
The answers are a little complicated, but here are the key reasons why
the lottery hasn't solved all of Ohio's school funding issues.
See the slideshow above for more details about how the lottery affects
school funding, as presented to the state school board Monday by new
state Superintendent Paolo DeMaria, the former state budget director.
$1 billion sounds like a lot, but it's a fraction of what the state
government spends on schools.
The state will spend $12.57 billion on education for the 2016-17 school
year. The $1.07 billion in lottery money covers just 8.5% of those
costs, with almost $8 billion coming from state taxes and $2 billion
from federal grants.
The $1 billion of lottery money would only be enough to cover state aid
to charter schools in Ohio or enough to cover all the costs of the
Cleveland school district and a few smaller ones.
What is that money spent on?
Nearly three-fourths of that $12.57 billion goes back to districts as
state aid. The rest covers things like career technical education,
operational support, state testing, and at-risk students.
Most lottery money goes to districts as state aid, with a small amount
going toward facilities for charter schools and to Gov. John Kasich's
student mentoring program, Community Connectors.
There's also local tax dollars too:
State aid makes up only a portion of your local school budgets, which
rely on property taxes and federal aid.
In 2015, according to the Ohio Department of Taxation, schools
collected $9.4 billion in local property taxes.
School districts received another $402 million in local school income
taxes and nearly $90 million from casinos, which are not counted in
lottery profits.
What does lottery money really do for schools?
It's hard to see how lottery profits affect your schools because it's
not really kept separate.
When the state sets aid for school districts every two years, it adds
money from a few funds together that it then parcels out.
State school board member Mary Rose Oakar told DeMaria Monday that
system makes it hard to sort out. Oakar asked DeMaria if the state sets
a funding amount for schools, then adds lottery money on top as a
bonus. Or, she asked, does the state counts the lottery dollars as part
of a big pool of cash, which would then free up $1 billion to spend on
other things.
DeMaria said that lottery money has been a part of school funding for
so long, that distinction isn't clear.
"Would state funding today be $1 billion less than today if we did not
have the lottery?" he asked.
He said that is hard to determine, but thinks schools receive some
extra money because of lottery profits and some money just shifts
elsewhere.
See a slideshow and find out more at The Cleveland Plain Dealer
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