Cuyahoga County Commissioners dug themselves a big financial hole by purchasing the Ameritrust property from Dick Jacobs. Now they are getting ready to dig a bigger hole for the Medical Mart.

The Ameritrust deal, which they say has cost the County $40-million, will likely be a money drain for the County for years, possibly decades to come.

The County now may be playing a game of chicken with property owners near the proposed Medical Mart and Convention Center. They also may be playing themselves into another budget hole.

The commissioners taxed Cuyahoga resident for some $800 million with a 40-year quarter percent sale tax increased, imposed without a vote. (RTA could make better use that money.)

So you can expect that Commissioners Tim Hagan, Jimmy Dimora and Peter Lawson Jones will tap taxpayers now for new digs – whether rented or constructed because of the Medical Mart. And they will likely pay top price because they will need the space ASAP, the usual recipe for a rip-off.

I suggest that MMPI solve the problem of obtaining the properties needed at Ontario and St. Clair itself. It has the contract now. It should do the job, not wait for the County to solve its problem.

For the County to just offer to knock down its administration building at 1219 Ontario seems to suggest that once again the public will pay and the private speculator – MMPI – will profit.

Why doesn’t the Plain Dealer complain bitterly now – BEFORE – this silliness becomes reality?