Latest news with #Haslams
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Ohio Senate GOP targets unclaimed property fund to help pay for Browns, Bengals stadium projects
The Browns hope to pay for their new stadium in part with state-issued bonds. Senate Republicans have a different idea. Via the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the initial budget of the Senate GOP's initial proposal for the state budget would include 'raiding' the unclaimed property fund. It currently has $4.8 billion. A total of $1.7 billion would be removed, with $600 million going to the Browns and $1.1 billion devoted to other stadium projects — including proposed upgrades to the Bengals' stadium. For the Browns, the $600 million would be repaid to the unclaimed property fund with tax revenues. It's unclear whether the Ohio House or governor Mike DeWine will support the proposal. The House has endorsed a bond issuance. DeWine wants to increase the taxes on sports books. Meanwhile, Cuyahoga County executive Chris Ronayne, who has been squabbling with the Browns lately, opposes using any state money for a stadium in Brook Park. 'This is a sad day for the state of Ohio and a sad day for the residents of Cuyahoga County,' Ronayne said. He added that the money would cover Medicaid for 50,000 Ohio residents. 'Put your own money in this, Haslams,' Ronayne said. It's just another example of the current mood held by many regarding whether NFL teams should pay for their own stadiums, or whether they're entitled to public funding. And it's currently playing out for multiple teams — the Browns, Bengals, Chiefs, and Commanders.
NBC Sports
5 days ago
- Business
- NBC Sports
Ohio Senate GOP targets unclaimed property fund to help pay for Browns, Bengals stadium projects
The Browns hope to pay for their new stadium in part with state-issued bonds. Senate Republicans have a different idea. Via the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the initial budget of the Senate GOP's initial proposal for the state budget would include 'raiding' the unclaimed property fund. It currently has $4.8 billion. A total of $1.7 billion would be removed, with $600 million going to the Browns and $1.1 billion devoted to other stadium projects — including proposed upgrades to the Bengals' stadium. For the Browns, the $600 million would be repaid to the unclaimed property fund with tax revenues. It's unclear whether the Ohio House or governor Mike DeWine will support the proposal. The House has endorsed a bond issuance. DeWine wants to increase the taxes on sports books. Meanwhile, Cuyahoga County executive Chris Ronayne, who has been squabbling with the Browns lately, opposes using any state money for a stadium in Brook Park. 'This is a sad day for the state of Ohio and a sad day for the residents of Cuyahoga County,' Ronayne said. He added that the money would cover Medicaid for 50,000 Ohio residents. 'Put your own money in this, Haslams,' Ronayne said. It's just another example of the current mood held by many regarding whether NFL teams should pay for their own stadiums, or whether they're entitled to public funding. And it's currently playing out for multiple teams — the Browns, Bengals, Chiefs, and Commanders.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Lawmakers debate funding for Browns dome project again: I-Team
COLUMBUS (WJW) – State lawmakers continued to debate the funding for the Cleveland Browns' new stadium project in Brook Park during the Senate's government oversight committee hearing Tuesday in Columbus. During the hearing, Kimberly Murnieks, director of the office of budget and management, provided testimony about a March 26 memo she wrote, stating she was 'concerned about the burden that this project would place on Ohio taxpayers.' She told lawmakers the memo she wrote was an 'internal memo' that was obtained by a public records request. The Browns are asking for $600 million in bonds from the state. That money would be paid back with profits from the project. Parma dispatchers save woman and child: I-Team State Senator Casey Weinstein voiced concerns about the bonds being issued for the project. He talked about several cuts in the budget to various programs. 'While we are cutting childhood cancer research, while we are cutting the 988 suicide line, all those things are a deep, deep concern,' Weinstein said. 'Especially given the publicly reported contributions the Haslams have made to members of the general assembly. Do you think this project is in the public interest based on the research your team did?' Murnieks pushed the Governor Mike DeWine's plan to fund sports stadiums by raising taxes on sports gambling. 'That is a long-term plan to address this issue while protecting the state's general revenue fund,' Murnieks said. DeWine said last week he expects to get a deal done, but he believes his plan to fund stadium projects is the best way. 'If we could end up in a dome stadium in the state of Ohio. We do not have one. I think it's a very positive thing,' DeWine said. He noted that the Haslams are spending over $1 billion of their own money to help pay for the project. 'You can't think of this as a stadium project. It's an economic development project,' Haslam told the I-Team last month. Police drone helped officers make arrest after high-speed chase: I-Team He said the Haslam Sports Group have committed $1.2 billion towards the stadium and another $800 million to $1 billion in private investment towards the adjacent mixed-use development. The Browns also have recently responded to the memo written by the state budge office, saying the memo contained some wrong information. More arguments on funding will come before state lawmakers soon. Still to come, a hearing before the state senate finance committee. There's no date for that set yet. A final decision on state funding for the Browns may not come until summer. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Fox 8 Cleveland WJW.
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Browns owners gave big money to Ohio lawmakers who now look to make a risky bet with public dollars
Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam looks on prior to a game against the Baltimore Ravens at Huntington Bank Field on October 27, 2024 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by) What a con. The billionaire owners of the Browns pulled a doozy on Ohio lawmakers to get the state to pony up a ton of public money for a domed stadium and glitzy development that nobody but Jimmy and Dee Haslam want. A slick presentation and some up-front cash — if rosy revenue projections flatline — did the trick. All the Haslams had to do to win a $600 million handout in the budget bill, passed last week by Ohio House Republicans, was convince the supermajority to trust them about making good on taxpayer stadium subsidies. Funny how Donald Trump's henchmen used the same 'trust me' pitch to urge shellshocked Americans to just accept that the president knows what he's doing when he tanks the economy, wipes out trillions in retirement funds, and launches an incoherent trade war with the world. But I digress. The Haslams have their own angle to exploit with pliable state legislators, if not the public. They laid the groundwork for over half a billion in state subsidies for their private enterprise with generous campaign checks to Statehouse Republicans and healthy donations to party priorities — like $100,000 to defeat the anti-gerrymandering initiative last fall. The Haslams gave big donations to Ohio lawmakers, who are now deciding the fate of Browns stadium So, when the Browns lobbied the political beneficiaries of Haslam largesse in Columbus, the die was cast for a publicly subsidized covered stadium complex that could easily be paid for with private dollars. If the Ohio Senate concurs on the Haslam money ask — a terrible use of finite government resources — the state is poised to pay out $600 million in state-issued bonds for a second Browns stadium in Cuyahoga County based on little more than a promise of tangible economic benefits in return. That's nuts. The news is replete with examples of government-subsidized boondoggles never generating the benefits taxpayers were promised. (Still waiting on the Intel miracle to materialize.) But the list of sports teams promising the moon in new tax revenue, jobs and businesses in sketchy cost-benefit projections and falling short — is long. Before Ohio commits to financing the Haslam's stadium and real estate venture with 30 years of bond payments that will, with interest, cost about a billion in forgone public services, taxpayers deserve some due diligence on the Browns money-making claims. That was not done to any degree warranted in the Ohio House before a swift party-line vote forced taxpayers to foot the bill for a massive stadium project purely to appease wealthy team owners who greased GOP chiefs for government windfalls. It's all about money and power. Forget tangible return on taxpayer investment. There's a mountain of empirical studies on why publicly funded stadiums are a bad idea. It's political malpractice by elected representatives. But House Republicans are stubbornly blind to raw facts when it comes to rationalizing corporate welfare at taxpayer expense. Ohio House Finance Chair Brian Stewart was practically giddy about giving hundreds of millions in state subsidies (on top of other public contributions for infrastructure improvements to tax abatements) to help the owners of the Browns build their latest plaything. 'We're going to have multiple Super Bowls played in the stadium,' he gushed about the brand-new home of a record-losing team — the Browns went 3-14 last season. 'This is going to be a destination center!' Because the Haslams say so, Stewart? Never mind the economic devastation on downtown Cleveland when the Haslams leave the lakefront for suburban Brook Park, a move that will create its own costly infrastructure nightmare for heavy airport traffic. Never mind that Cuyahoga County and Cleveland leaders remain adamant that the Browns' 'scheme' to relocate out of the city is a 'betrayal to Ohio taxpayers' who paid for the stadium and bought the promises of their home team. Never mind that there is ongoing litigation to keep the Browns in Cleveland and firm opposition by Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne to any local funding for the Browns' Brook Park stadium proposal. He called the Haslams $3.4 billion plan in the southwest suburb a 'risky bet with public dollars' the county should not take and advocated, instead, for renovating the existing Browns stadium on the lakefront. 'Having the stadium down there seems to be in everybody's best interest,' said Jimmy Haslam in 2023, 'so we're committed to redoing the stadium.' Now he's hitting up state and local governments for big bucks to underwrite what's in his best interest; an extravagant and expensive gamble on a tract of land in Brook Park near the congested intersection of Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. But it's taxpayers who will eat the loss of public funds if Haslam's crapshoot is a bust. Yet rather than slow down deliberations on the Browns' wager and take a closer look at a huge public expenditure beset with more questions than answers, Ohio House Republicans rushed to indulge a prominent campaign donor with deep pockets. They stuffed their sweetheart bond deal for the Haslams into a budget bill that slashed public school funding, clawed back money from fiscally responsible districts, cut library funds, Medicaid expansion, even programs that target Ohio's still high infant mortality rate and fund pediatric cancer research. How not to make Ohio great again. But $600 million in taxpayer subsidies to play fantasy football with billionaires in exchange for government debt with little to no positive economic impact? 'A once-in-a-lifetime' project, cooed Stewart. What a con. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Cleveland Browns aren't the only Ohio sports team that deserves investment
An unprecedented plan to issue $600 million in state bonds to help build a dome stadium for the billionaire owners of the NFL's Cleveland Browns smells as bad as the team's on-field performance. We don't oppose some state support for a new Browns stadium and see an all-season facility as a potential game changer for northeast Ohio. Whether the stadium belongs in suburban Brook Park or downtown Cleveland is for Browns' owners Dee and Jimmy Haslam and the good people of northeast Ohio to decide. But House Speaker Matt Huffman and his Republican colleagues are wrong to risk $600 million plus interest for just one of Ohio's many professional teams, while ignoring Gov. Mike DeWine's smart and responsible sports gambling tax increase to help teams across Ohio. The Browns want to scrap their 26-year-old lakefront stadium paid for by taxpayers. At the same time, their rivals in Cincinnati are working on a deal for $1.25 billion in renovations to 25-year-old Paycor Stadium, the taxpayer-owned home of the Bengals. There are also on-and-off talks about replacing Cincinnati's aging downtown arena, which hosts minor league hockey. Here in Columbus, Nationwide Arena, the 25-year-old home of the NHL's Columbus Blue Jackets, the Franklin County Convention Facilities Authority, says its arena needs $170 million for major upgrades and repairs, including a roof and HVAC equipment. The privately built arena was purchased by taxpayers in 2012 to ease financial pressures on the Blue Jackets, with casino taxes earmarked to help cover costs. Down the street stands Field, the 4-year-old home of the Columbus Crew, a soccer team also owned by the Haslams. The $314 million facility, built after the community's successful "Save The Crew" movement, is owned by the Confluence Community Authority, a special district governed by the city of Columbus and Franklin County. The Crew's stadium was made possible with $314 million from the Haslams and more than $100 million in work outside the stadium by the city, Franklin County and the state. The team's $10 per year lease allows it to buy the stadium for 30% of its fair market value in 2047. In short, the Haslams paid for the Crew's stadium, while various governments helped make it feasible and desirable. The Haslams now want a better deal in Cleveland and are counting on lawmakers they've supported with significant financial donations to hand them $600 million and another $400 million in interest. The proposed dome between Cleveland Hopkins Airport and Interstate 71 would cost $2.4 billion based on projections made before recent tariffs and economic uncertainty. It would feature 65,000 seats with the potential to host a Super Bowl and other major indoor sporting events in Ohio. The Haslams want to pay half or $1.2 billion, with the rest coming from government sources, including $600 million from Ohio and $600 million from a myriad of taxes in northeast Ohio, including rental cars and other tourism activities. There's widespread opposition to the local part of the plan, including from Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne. Funds to repay the state's share would come from future income, sales and commercial activity taxes earmarked from the stadium's development area, which the Browns project at $2.9 billion over a 30-year lease, reported. The sales tax is projected to generate $1.42 billion, while the income tax that some Republicans want to scrap would add $1.35 billion. There's no way to know if these lofty projections will be accurate even when taxing professional athletes, but we've seen similar projections come up short in the past. While repaying the $600 million, Ohio could not use those funds for other purposes, such as better funding for public schools. Opinion: Should Ohio really be racking up debt for Brown stadium as schools suffer? To their credit, the Haslams have floated a $38 million up-front investment predicted to grow to $150 million to protect the state from losses. They've also pledged to cover any cost overruns. Proponents argue the new stadium's potential economic benefits dwarf what the current Browns stadium would produce, even with renovations, perhaps making Ohio well more than $600 million. DeWine wants to support all of Ohio's sports facility needs by doubling the tax that sports gambling companies pay on their profits from bets sports fans lose. This would allow the state government to play a role in supporting sports franchises everywhere while ensuring it can fund essential government services. The cost burden would fall on out-of-state companies already raking in large profits off Ohioans' voluntary bets. "Ohio citizens are giving every single day millions of dollars to sports gaming companies," DeWine said in February. "It's time for us to raise the tax on them so that we can do things to help Ohioans." But the Ohio House's version of the state budget failed to include DeWine's proposals, choosing to focus only on the Browns' proposal. "The reality is we cannot afford ... to use general fund dollars to rehab stadiums or to build new sports stadiums. We do not have the money to do it," DeWine said Tuesday, noting the competing priorities of education, mental health and battling drug addiction among others. DeWine's higher tax would generate an estimated $130 million to $180 million per year, which should be sufficient to help every facility and, as the governor pitched, help children participate in sports. Opinion: Lawmakers more focused on financing Haslams' new Browns stadium than taxpayers We prefer DeWine's proposal as it earns revenue from sports fans without compromising funds needed for core services. We're aware that many people see public investments in arenas and stadiums as wasteful, with little chance of recouping taxpayer investments while team owners are enriched. If the Haslams get this dome built and later sell the Browns, their profit would likely be staggering, given recent team sales. A strong case can be made to force the Haslams or any owner to spend their own money on construction while using government funds to cover other infrastructure costs. Call it the Crew model, even if DeWine's sports betting tax is in play. Regardless of how the Browns situation unfolds, it's undeniable that some level of public support makes these projects worthwhile. Just look at the Columbus Arena District, once a decaying area known for a deteriorating old prison. Besides the Blue Jackets, Clippers and Crew, the Arena District has become home to more than 75 businesses, at least 17,000 area workers, and many apartments and condos. We're now a major professional sports city, a status that factors in our community's projected growth and landing jobs projects such as Intel and Anduril. We're not against the Browns' dome and the positive redevelopment it could bring. We're demanding a solution focused on helping all Ohio teams win on and off the field. This editorial was written by Dispatch Executive Editor Michael Sherer on behalf of the editorial board of The Columbus Dispatch. Editorials are fact-based assessments of issues of importance to the communities we serve. These are not the opinions of our reporting staff members, who strive for neutrality in their reporting. This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Browns' dome can't be Ohio's only sports funding priority | Our view
