3 SALES TAXES HIT CUYAHOGA TAXPAYERS FOR $162.9-MILLION SO FAR

Submitted by Roldo on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 10:46.

The tax burden in Cuyahoga County keeps mounting, recession or depression notwithstanding.

 

I mentioned recently that the City of Cleveland paid an annual $452,724 in property taxes for the Browns Stadium.  County figures show that taxpayers also contributed $54,218,411 more in taxes to help the billionaire Lerner family.

 

The latest figures on the sin tax – originally assessed in 1990 for Gateway – show the $54-million now collected for Browns stadium. That’s in addition to the more than $220-million collected for Gateway.

 

Voters when they thought they might lose the Browns (horrors!) extended the sin tax to help pay for a new football stadium.

In June, Cuyahoga County taxpayers added $1.27 million to the kitty. Since August, 2005, the sin tax has produced $54.2 million, all distributed to pay for the football stadium.

 

Thus far $12.6-million has come from smokers, $19.3-million from alcohol drinkers, $17.7-million from beer drinkers and $4.3-million from wine drinkers.

 

Smokers have also contributed $46.8 million to the Arts & Culture kitty of Cuyahoga County.

 

I mentioned earlier that the increased quarter-percent sales tax for the Medical Mart & Convention Center cost county taxpayers $61.8 million so far. This tax started in January 2008.

 

So, the depressed County taxpayers have paid for these three ventures: Some $162.9-million. All regressive taxes, naturally.

 

Keep giving ‘til it hurts. Oh, it already does?

 

‹ $75-MILLION OF COUNTY TAXES FOR SPECIAL INTERESTSup45 YEARS AGO I COULD NOT IMAGINE TONIGHT ›
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Don't forget stormwater fees....

Submitted by lmcshane on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 11:18.

 

Giving until it hurts...is right...

 

The Use of the Stadium justifies the expense.

Submitted by Jeff Buster on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 13:20.

Roldo,

One thing you aren't telling your audience is about how well used  the Brown's Stadium is.  

Over 8 or 10 days a YEAR it is used!

I have a few rooms in my house which I don't use that much and I still pay taxes for those rooms.  And look at churches - you only go there once a week for an hour.

How is it wrong for all the County taxpayers - even those like me who never have been in the place - to spend 54 million for using the stadium about once every month and a half?   After all, corporate sports is a lot like a religion...except with beer.

What else would you do with the money? 

Spend it on local Cuyahoga County infrastructure that the taxpayer's don't even realize they need?

  Or reduce the County Tax rate and lesson the tax burden on people who are going to move out of Cuyahoga County anyway?

Come on, lighten up on the Lerners, it's not their fault people like to tailgate, have bonfires in the 5 degree wind,  and get wasted down by the Lake. 

That's the fault of the educational system....

Yeah, and now you're probably going to tell me there's a connection.

 

 

 

 

Who created all these taxes?

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 14:27.

I agree - so exactly who stuck us with all this?

Dimora is to blame for everything - payback for trips to Vegas? I don't think so - it's the MEDiaCON distracting even the smart people away from the smart solutions to the stupid problems.

Who are the planners, councilpeople, economists, commissioners, mayors, lawyers, academics, and voters who planned and built these stupid stadiums, under these terms. What about that ugly ConvoCon over at CSU (well, all those ugly cons at CSU... tax-paid, I believe).

The only tax here that anyone I know agrees with is the County Arts and Culture tax... I've had artists who won some of the funding express their appreciation. Even knowing a few winners from this, I don't agree... I hate the tax.

We are way over taxed here and too much of the money is poorly spent. Decades of doing... don't let it happen more.

Eliminate tax abatements in Cleveland and reclaim any historic credits not used - go after all this money and tighten the loopholes... all the benefits go to the rich.

At the local level, for my family, I don't agree with the property taxes we pay in East Cleveland and especially in Shaker... way overtaxed for bloated government and services that are largely unnecessary and harm our environment... they pay twice what they should in Shaker, for a ride in Disneyworld.

Disrupt IT