Clean it up!

My plans for the City of Cleveland begin with fiscal and leadership responsibility.

In order to grow and move forward, we need the least corrupt government possible. Although corruption is often inevitable when the powers that be remain in office for a long period of time, there are steps we can take. As citizens, we are called to vote good people first and foremost into office, seeing beyond the financial aspects of their campaigns into whether or not their intentions are good. A strong platform and experience also help. Secondly, we need to utilize the strong FBI presence we have here. Sure, they may slow down some government processes, but ratting out corrupt politicians and city/county workers is a priority. They've done a valiant job so far and need to continue looking into government corruption at all levels.

Cleveland is a leader in philanthropy between businesses, non profits, and governments. THAT is GREAT! It's the inside jobs and skimming money that have cost our region MILLIONS of tax dollars.

Weeding out this government corruption is the first step to fiscal responsibility. Cleveland's population loss is beginning to decline as the people who are left mostly either want to stay or do not have the means to leave if they wanted to. A large chunk of the population loss over the last five years was from the foreclosure crisis and the exodus of wealthy city workers (previously required to live IN Cleveland) to the suburbs. Now that those workers who wanted to leave have left, there's really nothing else forcing people to stay in town.

As our population begins to stabilize, we can begin to focus on a fixed income (as opposed to a constant decline) as well as the best ways to use the resources we have. But in order to complete the projects we wish to continue to fund as a city and county, we need to attempt to clean up the messes we have already made and refocus our resources on projects and agencies that benefit everyone, particularly the under served.

I first propose approaching the owners of our three major sports teams about refinancing our deals.
Here are some facts:
-We're still paying for about a half of "The Q" and "Progressive Field."
-Both owners get subsidies.
-The Dolan family still makes annual profits on the Indians through MLB revenue sharing.
-Dan Gilbert is a very wealthy man and has huge stakes in our city through his investments and great returns on the Cavaliers and through the new casino.
-Almost all of athletes live in the far suburbs, the owners live out of town, and many workers live in the suburbs.
-Cleveland is getting very little returns on the huge investment that these box projects were.
-Neither owner has to pay property taxes.

Facts more enraging to me:
-The County is still paying about $7 million a year for Cleveland Browns Stadium, will through something like 2025
-Randy Lerner pays NO PROPERTY TAXES (fund our schools) on the stadium for ETERNITY
-We lose EIGHT MILLION DOLLARS a year on that lost property tax income.
-The stadium was poorly placed on prime real estate land that could have been developed for other uses (developed new lakefront community, park, etc.)
-Lerner lives in England, is a multi Billionaire, and is basically pillaging our city for extra profits from our team.
-The players and workers who are needed 9 times a year live in the suburbs.
-Lerner's annual rent is a measly $250,000 with no increase over 30 years.
-This is all BULLSHIT to Clevelanders!

Corruption comes in many forms. TALK ABOUT CORRUPTION!

The Medical Mart and convention center are the same things all over again, however I argue FOR IT as soon as possible in a tba post.

With all of this in mind, as a sign of faith in moving our region forward, I highly recommend the city business leaders, city nonprofit leaders, city leaders, county leaders, state governor, and state congressmen to set up meetings with the owners of these teams to try to work out new deals. At least put public pressure on them.

Since the county's 50% shares in the Gateway district are almost paid off, try to negotiate slashing the subsidies by two thirds, or else threaten to remove them all together. Gilbert's not leaving, and the Dolans   might sell the franchise (which, in my opinion, would be fine, as long as they stay). I think it's reasonable that the county is paying for just 50% of these projects with sin taxes.

That gives us more money to spend on critical projects.

The two large pushes are at the state level and with Lerner:

The state needs to repeal its laws that guarantee stadiums built in Ohio do not have to pay property taxes.

We need to sit down with Lerner and find a way to convince him to pay for the remainder of the stadium, or at least a half of that remainder. It will likely fail because the deal is already in place. However, a sign of good faith in trying to move on from our corrupt past needs to be shown by the powers that be.

In total, on our stadiums and the Key Center and Gateway Parking complex, we lose $20 million in property taxes EACH YEAR. Imagine what we'd be able to do if we had that back!

If we could renegotiate with Lerner for half of the remaining financing for Browns stadium as well as removing subsidies to the Cavaliers and Indians, that would at least free up $5 million!

Corruption comes in many shapes and forms, and we're currently so entrenched in it that we need to find a way out now before it becomes too late and we miss out on growth opportunities in the next 20 years.

Moving forward with any projects, plans, and regionalization requires that we clean up our fiscal act NOW and free up funds for new projects so we won't have to raise taxes.

Oh how I LOVE Cleveland!

Here's a link on financing issues in Cleveland:
http://www.clevelandleader.com/node/10751

-Ken



NEXT TIME: something else interesting, possibly lakefront