Should Ohio really be racking up debt for Brown stadium as schools suffer? | Opinion
Thomas Suddes is a former legislative reporter with The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and writes from Ohio University.
Ohio House Republicans, defying Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, are sticking with their plan to use state-issued bonds to help finance a new domed Cleveland Browns football stadium in suburban Brook Park rather than boost Ohio’s tax on sports betting companies — DeWine’s plan.
DeWine wants to muster the state’s proposed $600 million share of the ballyhooed stadium’s cost by doubling — from 20% to 40% — the state’s Sports Gaming Receipts Tax, paid by companies that are licensed to offer sports betting in Ohio.
Ohio House Republicans’ determination to buck DeWine on the proposed stadium’s funding headlined the budget counterproposal unveiled Tuesday by Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman, a Lima Republican, and his House GOP allies.
Huffman wants the state to sell $600 million in bonds to help the Browns’ owners, Jimmy and Dee Haslam, build the Brook Park venue, rather than tax the highly profitable gaming companies, which, in effect, export their lush earnings out of state.
The Haslams have said they can cover $1.2 billion of the Browns stadium project’s estimated $2.4 billion cost, while the state and Cuyahoga County each pony up 25% ($600 million) by selling bonds. The bonds would be repaid by taxes collected inside a Brook Park enclave composed of the new stadium and adjacent businesses (parking, bars, hotels, restaurants, etc.) — in lawyer-speak, a “Transformational Major Sports Facility Mixed-Use Project District.”
Even assuming Cuyahoga County and Brook Park officials are willing to earmark stadium-site-specific tax proceeds for the proposed bond issue they’d have to shoulder, it’s a fair question whether the Ohio Constitution’s bonding rules authorize racking up state debt for the proposed Browns stadium.
True, Ohio’s Supreme Court can fairly be expected to rubber-stamp whatever Huffman’s caucus wants. But the lawyers hired to protect potential bond-buyers’ money may not be so flexible.
In any case, it’s hard to understand how a legislature that underfunds public schools and, in effect, has ignored the skyrocketing property taxes shouldered by Ohio homeowners — especially, ironically, in the state’s Republican-leaning suburbs — can make a budget priority of billionaires with stakes in a losing pro football team,
Oh wait: This is Ohio.
Huffman allies get a pay raise
Meanwhile, DeWine, as expected, last week signed into law Ohio’s 2025-27 transportation budget, Amended Substitute House Bill 54, financing state highway construction and related work, much of it funded by Ohio’s gas tax (38.5 cents per gallon) and CNG and Diesel taxes (47 cents). Federal highway aid contributes nearly 47% to Ohio’s transportation budget, primarily sourced from the federal gasoline tax (18.4 cents per gallon), according to legislative analysts.
The boilerplate press release announcing DeWine’s OK of the highway bill included his opaque sentence: “Governor DeWine did not veto any items in House Bill 54.” That’s Statehouse code for a dicey fact: DeWine didn’t kill (as he could have, with an item-veto) an arguably unconstitutional section of the transportation budget granting juicy pay-raises to some House pals of Speaker Matt Huffman, a Lima Republican.
Current base-pay for a rank-and-file General Assembly member is $72,343, the Legislative Service Commission reports. Meanwhile, the Ohio Constitution says that “no change in [General Assembly members’] compensation shall take effect during their term of office.”
Really? But as signed by DeWine, the transportation budgets ladles out a sweet pay-raise to Rep. Phil Plummer, a Dayton Republican who helped quarterback Huffman’s rise in January to the House speakership. Last year, Plummer’s salary was $78,599. The transportation (budget boosts that to $99,903 by creating a post called “assistant speaker pro tempore.”
Likewise, the House formerly had one majority (Republican) whip; it’ll now have four GOP whips (at $84,988 each). That’s what this quartet of Huffman allies will be paid: Republican Reps. Riordan McClain, of Wyandot County’s Nevada; Steve Demetriou, of Bainbridge Township, in suburban Cleveland’s Geauga County; Nick Santucci, of Trumbull County’s Niles; and Josh Williams, of suburban Toledo.
Keep in mind that being an Ohio General Assembly member is legally part-time; state legislators can and do hold outside jobs. Meanwhile, median household income in Ohio was $69,680 in 2023, the Census reports.
Funny: Somehow, Ohio households’ lagging incomes — the national median is $80,610 — isn’t something that Ohio’s new transportation budget addresses.
Thomas Suddes is a former legislative reporter with The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and writes from Ohio University.