Offsetting property taxes or just adding taxes?

Monroe County voters decided Tuesday to impose a 1 percent sales tax for their schools, a move intended to provide property tax relief. Intended.

The sales tax revenue is only for bricks, mortar, maintenance and debt on those items — not for operating costs. The idea is that giving schools this revenue stream will spread the burden beyond a district, with Monroe County estimating 30 percent of the sales taxes will be paid by those living outside the county. Waterloo schools expect to receive $1.2 million a year that will largely go to old debt and Columbia schools $800,000 intended to initially fix its heating and cooling systems.

Next up is St. Clair County. In November voters are expected to face the same question of imposing a 1 percent sales tax. Again, shoppers from outside the county are expected to pay a good chunk of this tax.

Belleville’s high school district expects the tax will generate about $2.2 million a year for their 4,800 students. Superintendent Jeff Dosier said the district has every intention of using the sales taxes to offset property taxes.

Those are good intentions, but schools are not bound to drop your property taxes in exchange for the sales taxes.

Remember what a boost the Illinois Lottery was going to be to our schools? It quickly became an excuse for state lawmakers to shirk their school funding obligation.

In 2013, 29 cents of every $1 wagered on the lottery went to schools for a total of $656 million. That was only 7 percent of the $9.4 billion the state came up with to fund one-third of the state’s school costs. The state’s legal obligation is to be the primary funding source for schools.

Initial promises quickly fade from government leaders’ memories. If you want to ensure local school districts are not taking money out of your right and left pockets, you should expect that in the future you will need to hold them to the promises that they are making now to cajole your vote.

This story was originally published March 20, 2016 at 2:00 PM with the headline "Offsetting property taxes or just adding taxes?."