Cuyahoga County Sin Tax

[Maximus]

I would vote it down. Cutting Ohio's government is a priority. The stadium will get paid for but other things like buying 42 million of Israel bonds will come to an end. The idea that the stadium won't get paid for and the team will leave is nonsense. It will put the city in a position to cut an already bloated government freeing up the city to prosper.

Look, no one hates taxes and bloated government more than me. But, voting this down eliminates neither. The public is LEGALLY responsible for maintaining these facilities. If this fails and a new roof needs to be built for the Q, the public BY LAW will need to come up with the millions to pay the bill. These are millions we don't have and can't afford. The vehicle is already in place to cover all of our legal responsibilities to maintain these 3 facilities. Why anyone would want to eliminate it and expose us to these potentially massive bills is ridiculous. We have to pay them one way or another. A penny a beer and a nickel for cigarettes sounds pretty painless to me. If someone can come up with an easier way to pay our bills, I'm all ears.

Also worth mentioning, our 3 owners have been pretty generous in paying nearly all of the bills up to this point that we were responsible for paying.




LET’S KEEP CLEVELAND STRONG
Please VOTE YES on Issue 7

Nearly 25 years ago, voters chose to invest in new public-owned sports facilities through a pennies-per-purchase tax on
alcohol and tobacco. These sports facilities have transformed downtown Cleveland.

This May, Cuyahoga County voters can fund much-needed major repairs to keep our sports venues “major league” by
Voting YES on Issue 7 to extend – NOT INCREASE – Cuyahoga County’s minimal cigarettes and alcohol tax.

CONTINUE A Partnership That Works For ALL OF US
We entered into a partnership with Cleveland’s teams on our facilities. Both the public and the teams benefit from
them and we share with the teams a legal responsibility to take care of them.

Cleveland’s teams have paid nearly 100% of the cost of maintaining and operating our sports facilities since they
opened, including the portion the public was supposed to pay. The Indians and Cavs agreed to renegotiated leases that
have saved the public tens of millions of dollars and that are considered among the most “public friendly” leases in the
country. Under these leases the teams will continue to pay for the majority of the costs of maintaining and operating our
sports facilities.

MAINTAIN Cleveland’s Competitive Advantage
Only 15 major US cities have major league baseball, basketball and football teams. Cleveland is one of them. Our sports
venues help make Cleveland a Major League City.
 Our sports venues host more than 300 games and shows each year. This boosts our image and helps us compete
for business.
 Having state-of-the-art facilities also helps Cleveland compete with other cities for major concerts and events.

PROTECT A Valuable Investment And Prolong Its Benefits
Progressive Field, Quicken Loans Arena and First Energy Stadium have:
 Attracted 75 million visitors to downtown Cleveland
 Stimulated $5 billion in economic activity
 Generated more than $400 million in local tax revenue that pay for critical city and county services
 Sustained thousands of family-supporting jobs
 Supported $700 million in development in the neighborhood around the Gateway complex, including 5 hotels,
15 residential buildings, and 60 restaurants and eateries.

KEEP What We Pay The Same
Issue 7 will NOT RAISE TAXES. What we pay for cigarettes and alcohol won’t increase. Voting YES on Issue 7 will keep
things as they have been for nearly 25 years, with residents, tourists, and visitors to Cuyahoga County paying about a
penny and half for a bottle of beer, a penny for a glass of wine and less than a nickel for a pack of cigarettes.

AVOID Putting Other Services At Risk
After 20-years of heavy use and exposure to Cleveland weather, just like with a home, our sports facilities are going to
need some major repairs – like replacing the roof on The Q.

Under the leases with the teams, major capital repairs are the public’s legal responsibility and we need to pay our bills. If Issue 7 fails, the city and county would still have to pay for repairs and would have to make deep cuts in critical services
to replace lost cigarette and alcohol tax revenue.

 

[Lee]

Max, dont let the facts get in the way of peoples hatred for taxes. Lets occupy wall street and put everyone on minimum wage and then operate our government with no one paying taxes.

 

[Ruken]

Revenue for the government is a liability of the taxpayer.

The same government who provides essential services to those same taxpayers.

 

[oasis05]

10 million a year is not a deep cut for the political elites. With billions in tax revenue being distributed the mayor has 10 million checks in his car that he's forgot to cash. Though this will likely just be the beginning of Ohio's renaissance if the people start voting this kind of stuff down more often.

 

[Ruken]

10 million a year is not a deep cut for the political elites. With billions in tax revenue being distributed the mayor has 10 million checks in his car that he's forgot to cash. Though this will likely just be the beginning of Ohio's renaissance if the people start voting this kind of stuff down more often.

I am done trying to argue with you, let me know when you find your way back to reality or develop the ability to make a coherent argument.

 

[oasis05]

Elimination of the sin tax is less than a 1 percent cut in taxes. Puerto Rico just cut their taxes by 100% to bring in foreign aid to rebuild there economy. Because lowering taxes helps an economy grow.

 

[AZ_]

oasis heading full steam into an incoherent, irrelevant rant on taxes.

I, for one, am shocked by this development.

 

[The Voice]

Look, no one hates taxes and bloated government more than me. But, voting this down eliminates neither. The public is LEGALLY responsible for maintaining these facilities. If this fails and a new roof needs to be built for the Q, the public BY LAW will need to come up with the millions to pay the bill. These are millions we don't have and can't afford. The vehicle is already in place to cover all of our legal responsibilities to maintain these 3 facilities. Why anyone would want to eliminate it and expose us to these potentially massive bills is ridiculous. We have to pay them one way or another. A penny a beer and a nickel for cigarettes sounds pretty painless to me. If someone can come up with an easier way to pay our bills, I'm all ears.

Also worth mentioning, our 3 owners have been pretty generous in paying nearly all of the bills up to this point that we were responsible for paying.




LET’S KEEP CLEVELAND STRONG
Please VOTE YES on Issue 7

Nearly 25 years ago, voters chose to invest in new public-owned sports facilities through a pennies-per-purchase tax on
alcohol and tobacco. These sports facilities have transformed downtown Cleveland.

This May, Cuyahoga County voters can fund much-needed major repairs to keep our sports venues “major league” by
Voting YES on Issue 7 to extend – NOT INCREASE – Cuyahoga County’s minimal cigarettes and alcohol tax.

CONTINUE A Partnership That Works For ALL OF US
We entered into a partnership with Cleveland’s teams on our facilities. Both the public and the teams benefit from
them and we share with the teams a legal responsibility to take care of them.

Cleveland’s teams have paid nearly 100% of the cost of maintaining and operating our sports facilities since they
opened, including the portion the public was supposed to pay. The Indians and Cavs agreed to renegotiated leases that
have saved the public tens of millions of dollars and that are considered among the most “public friendly” leases in the
country. Under these leases the teams will continue to pay for the majority of the costs of maintaining and operating our
sports facilities.

MAINTAIN Cleveland’s Competitive Advantage
Only 15 major US cities have major league baseball, basketball and football teams. Cleveland is one of them. Our sports
venues help make Cleveland a Major League City.
 Our sports venues host more than 300 games and shows each year. This boosts our image and helps us compete
for business.
 Having state-of-the-art facilities also helps Cleveland compete with other cities for major concerts and events.

PROTECT A Valuable Investment And Prolong Its Benefits
Progressive Field, Quicken Loans Arena and First Energy Stadium have:
 Attracted 75 million visitors to downtown Cleveland
 Stimulated $5 billion in economic activity
 Generated more than $400 million in local tax revenue that pay for critical city and county services
 Sustained thousands of family-supporting jobs
 Supported $700 million in development in the neighborhood around the Gateway complex, including 5 hotels,
15 residential buildings, and 60 restaurants and eateries.

KEEP What We Pay The Same
Issue 7 will NOT RAISE TAXES. What we pay for cigarettes and alcohol won’t increase. Voting YES on Issue 7 will keep
things as they have been for nearly 25 years, with residents, tourists, and visitors to Cuyahoga County paying about a
penny and half for a bottle of beer, a penny for a glass of wine and less than a nickel for a pack of cigarettes.

AVOID Putting Other Services At Risk
After 20-years of heavy use and exposure to Cleveland weather, just like with a home, our sports facilities are going to
need some major repairs – like replacing the roof on The Q.

Under the leases with the teams, major capital repairs are the public’s legal responsibility and we need to pay our bills. If Issue 7 fails, the city and county would still have to pay for repairs and would have to make deep cuts in critical services
to replace lost cigarette and alcohol tax revenue.

The Browns don't deserve a dime, sorry. Unless a team makes the playoffs in the past 10 years they should not get anything. Then we wouldn't have absentee owners.

Gilbert can't afford to put a new roof on that revenue stream?

 

[AZ_]

The Browns don't deserve a dime, sorry. Unless a team makes the playoffs in the past 10 years they should not get anything. Then we wouldn't have absentee owners.

Gilbert can't afford to put a new roof on that revenue stream?

Enlightening.

Once again, the city is already under contract to provide these upgrades per their deal with the city. This tax helps the city pay for those upgrades while having no effect on the individual citizen buying these items. It affects the distributors of these items, but no evidence suggests the prices are even affected.

Vote it down and you're not sticking it to the Browns for not making the playoffs, even if that weren't a wholly imbecilic idea.

Using this as your bully pulpit to take a stand against the Cleveland sports teams mediocrity wreaks of the misguided outrage I'm used to from Cleveland sports fans.

 

[The Oi]

Seeing oasis, Voice and Tornicade posts all on the same page feels like falling asleep drunk and waking up inside of a Jackson Pollock painting.

 

[Ruken]

Seeing oasis, Voice and Tornicade posts all on the same page feels like falling asleep drunk and waking up inside of a Jackson Pollock painting.

This is in serious consideration for becoming my signature.

 

[Soda]

Using this as your bully pulpit to take a stand against the Cleveland sports teams mediocrity wreaks of the misguided outrage I'm used to from Cleveland sports fans.

 

[joebialek]

This issue is the absurdity of absurdities. Let me get this straight: the purpose of the Sin Tax is to gouge those who purchase alcohol and cigarettes not because anyone is trying to discourage consumption but rather so the County can use that money to pay for sports stadiums that do not produce anything but a fleeting moment witnessing the passing of a football, the dribbling of a basketball and the throwing of a baseball so that such a minute tidbit of diversion can be enjoyed by all. The stupidity of this proposition is enough to make your head spin even though the spin doctors advocating passage of this nonsense are already doing a pretty good job of hypnotizing the voters to actually consider supporting it. At least the Robber Barons of the previous centuries provided something tangible such as oil, steel, railroads etcetera. These team owners do not even provide one tangible thing that could ever be considered with the term “value added.” Almost everyone discusses this “enterprise” as though it is the same thing as industry {which it is not}. The price of admission is essentially a voluntary tax paid by those who can afford it to pay those who don’t need it. If this isn’t a transfer of wealth I don’t know what is.

The real outrage here is the fact that taxes on alcohol and cigarettes will not be used to aid in the reduction of addiction {hence the reference to “sin”} but rather to stuff the pockets of all three teams who could easily afford to pay for the repairs themselves. The vote was rammed through the last time {under somewhat suspicious circumstances} and hear we go again. But this time...not so fast!!! We the voters of Cuyahoga County are going to fight the proponents on this one and we don't care if the teams up and go somewhere else {please see my views on entertainment below} because quite frankly there are simply more important things than sports and the unearned money that comes with it. Those in public office who are too stupid and lazy to find other ways to grow a major American city need to resign and leave their self-seeking political ambitions on the scrapheap of history. Don’t ever let it be said that this was time when the tide ran out on Cuyahoga County but rather was the time when the voters rose up to welcome the rising tide of change and rebuked this pathetic paradigm our previous elected leaders embraced. Let the battle be joined.

sell the stadiums

 

[Maximus]

sell the stadiums

Go run for council again Joe, you can make it happen. :chuckles:

 

[AZ_]

Go run for council again Joe, you can make it happen. :chuckles:

Again?