Browns Stadium/County Sin Tax

[Michael Deneen]

As many of you know, the city has agreed to bankroll some of the improvements to Browns Stadium.
Due to the horrific one-sided lease, much of this money was pretty much required to be paid.

The county will soon seek an extension to the sin tax, which expires in 2015.
The sin tax pitch will be funded by all three sports teams, each of which wants stadium improvements.

I have a couple questions:

*IMMC, a few years ago we voted to fund the arts via sin tax. If the sports sin tax extension is voted down, would the arts lose money in 2016 and beyond?

*Can anyone provide insight on how those arts dollars are currently being distributed?

*How do we feel about funding these stadiums? Atlanta is replacing two facilities that are each only 20 years old. When the current leases expire, should the area consider exiting the professional sports landscape?

[Michael Deneen]

Oops, I meant to put this in the "General" forum.

However, I'm curious to hear a Lakewood perspective on this....our town does a lot of smoking and drinking.

[marklingm]

Mike,

Is this really a sin tax?

Is the purpose to discourage individuals from partaking in “sin” or is it to raise funds for stadium improvements?

Football can’t be a sin! Can it?

Why not just call this a stadium improvement tax and put it to the voters?

For as good read, check out, “Island of Vice: Theodore Roosevelt's Quest to Clean Up Sin-Loving New York” by Richard Zacks. See http://www.amazon.com/Island-Vice-Theodore-Roosevelts-Sin-Loving/dp/product-description/0767926196.





Would Teddy tax football today?

Check out http://www.loc.gov/rr/news/topics/football1.html.

Matt

[Bill Call]

As many of you know, the city has agreed to bankroll some of the improvements to Browns Stadium.
Due to the horrific one-sided lease, much of this money was pretty much required to be paid.

There is a pattern here that repeats itself in all of the County's so called investments.

First the local news outlets and politicians hail the deal as an innovative and much needed shot in the arm for Cleveland that is fair to all parties. A couple of years down the road the local news outlets report that the deal was bad for the City, County or region and then announce a new deal that is fair to all parties that replaces the old deal that was fair to all the parties.


Along the way its reported that the "investments" (baseball stadium, basketball stadium, football stadium, convention center, hotel, RTA project, casino, etc.) isn't going to create as many of the jobs or economic activity that it was predicted to create but that's okay because if we increase the taxpayer subsidies the project will give the whole region a boost.

It's a bit disappointing to see the lack of interest in this post. Almost as disappointing as the lack of interest in the fact that Cleveland leads the nation in job losses.

Everyone agrees that STEM jobs, (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) are the key to economic prosperity. Cleveland comes in 44th in STEM jobs and is actually losing those jobs at an alarming rate. A neat little site called New Geography:

http://www.newgeography.com/content/004 ... -tech-jobs

Does anyone really believe that a Cleveland recovery will be led by hotel jobs, casino jobs and more subsidies for the politically well connected?

How blind is our leadership? Blind enough to think driving the buses down the middle of the street leads to economic growth.

http://www.crainscleveland.com/article/ ... /311109977

Earth to Joe: RTA ridership is down substantially from its peak. Virtually all of the so called growth in recent ridership is do to increasing poverty, declining real incomes and accelerating job losses in the Cleveland area. If people could afford a car they would use it.

[michael gill]

Mike,

The tax on cigarettes to fund Cuyahoga Arts and Culture is a separate and dedicated revenue stream completely independent of funding for the Stadium.

Whether we fund the stadium improvements with a sin tax will have no effect on public funding for the arts and culture in Cuyahoga County . . . except to the extent that the population could generally feel over taxed and at the ballot box choose one over the other. Conversely, the population could see one of those as money well spent, and therefore be more inclined to support the other.

The cigarette tax has a sunset in 2016, after which it will be up for a vote--either a straight up renewal or in some modified form. This will happen regardless of what happens with the stadium.

It is possible that we see some connection made between the arts and some other quality of life issue. In Minnesota, the arts and culture are bundled with parks for public support.

Initially Cuyahoga Arts and Culture was giving away something like $17 million per year, the vast majority as operating support for arts organizations, including Beck Center for the Arts, Art Neo (formerly the Cleveland Artists Foundation, which is located at Beck Center), and the Lakewood Historical Society.

I'd bet other Lakewood organizations with arts programming also benefit from CAC funds.

County wide, cAC funds support scores of organizations from the biggest University Circle and downtown institutions to tiny neighborhood efforts. Every time they disburse funds, they report on the disbursement. Cuyahoga Arts and Culture is of course a public entity, so their records are accessible.

You can get more information at http://cacgrants.org/

[ryan costa]

Many years ago, Don Henley said "You must not be drinking enough".
There is not enough sin to go around.
alcohol and tobacco represent economic growth.
sports fans are too complacent to abstain from the NFL.
elected officials are too incompetent to get a good lease deal on the stadium.
The NFL owners are smart enough to not build their own stadiums.