The Ohio state senate has a new plan for funding a Cleveland Browns stadium, and it’s neither Gov. Mike DeWine’s plan to use increased taxes on sports gambling nor legislative leaders’ plans to siphon off taxes on spending at a new facility and kick them back to the team — not exactly, anyway. Instead, the senate’s budget plan would tap the state’s unclaimed property fund, a $4.8 billion pile of money from dormant bank accounts, uncashed checks, and other money that Ohio is temporarily sitting on while waiting for the proper owners to claim it. The fund would then be replenished, with interest, by siphoning off $636 million in taxes on spending at and around a new Browns stadium. And the senate’s plan would actually authorize up to $1.7 billion in borrowing from the fund, meaning it could be used to help provide upgrades for the Cincinnati Bengals stadium as well.
This is not so much a new funding plan as a new financing plan — just as deciding to buy a new car and paying for it in installments still leaves you on the hook to pay the same cost, using money from the unclaimed property fund is just a way for the state to temporarily loan money to itself, before paying it off with the exact same stadium tax diversions. (Which, according to state budget analysts, would still leave Ohio’s general fund holding the bag.) Still, it’s getting a ton of attention from people who have money sitting in the unclaimed property fund, some of whom include Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb, former Browns quarterbacks Baker Mayfield and Bernie Kosar, and this really steamed person on Reddit.
The latest senate proposal likely faces the same roadblock as the previous one, which is that it still uses kicked-back stadium taxes, and DeWine hates that idea and can veto it. Still, it’s a sign of how many hoops elected officials are prepared to jump through to argue that spending public money isn’t really spending public money — it’s just sitting there in an account, that must mean it’s free money, right? — when funding for local billionaires is at stake. If the Ohio senate ends up suggesting funding a Browns stadium by kiting checks, will anyone really be all that surprised?
$4.8 billion? At least the pols are talking about borrowing the money, and not using eminent domain. For now.
$4.8 billion is just the amount of money in the state account, not how much the senate wants to use. The proposal is to borrow $600m for the Browns and then up to $1.1 billion for the Bengals and whatever else might come up, then repay it from other state tax revenue — so it’s really more like putting the debt on a credit card than actually using the fund to pay for it.
It’s really infuriating to see government bending over backwards, looking under every proverbial rock, to find money to give to a sports organization for a new stadium that will be used what, 20% of the year?? (I’m not good at math)
But ask for government funds for schools, libraries, etc. and there’s simply no money to be found…
You have hit on the intrinsic problem.
Schools and libraries help make people smarter. Can’t have that.
Sports stadiums make them spend money that goes to rich guys. Gotta have that.
I take issue with the description of this practice as a “problem”.