Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has signed the state’s two-year budget that includes a provision for $600 million in state funds to cover some of the construction costs on the Cleveland Browns’ $2.4 billion domed stadium development.
According to combined media reports, the budget allocates $1.7 billion from the state’s unclaimed funds to establish the Ohio Cultural and Sports Facility Performance Grant Fund, with the Browns as the initial recipient of a grant from the fund. Dan Tierney, a spokesperson for the governor, said the new budget also rewrites the state’s “Art Modell Law” that restricts professional sports teams from moving without local consent – the new stadium is being designated for the Cleveland suburb of Brook Park. Under the rewritten law, public funds can only be clawed back if a team moves out-of-state move, which effectively stifles a lawsuit brought by the city of Cleveland to block the Browns’ relocation.
Former Ohio Attorney General and State Senator Marc Dann is planning to sue the Ohio Department of Commerce and Ohio Treasurer Robert Sprague to stop the funds transfer to the Browns, arguing that the Unclaimed Funds Trust for the stadium project was an “unconscionable, unconstitutional, and blatantly illegal confiscation of Ohioans’ private property.”
While allocating funds to the NFL team, DeWine also vetoed a proposal that would have enabled school districts to carry over a maximum of 40% of their operating budgets from the property tax they collect from voter-approved levies, with the rest refunded to taxpayers. In explaining the veto – one of 67 that he enacted – DeWine claimed the proposal would result in “more districts asking taxpayers to pass levies more often, which could very well exacerbate property tax increases instead of reducing them.”
