The County’s Priorities Don’t Add Up

When Columbus tells Cuyahoga “wait,” it should give the rest
of us a chance to ask what the county is actually paying for.

Last week, state leaders did Cuyahoga County residents a
favor. They told the county to slow down on a plan that would have
tripled — or maybe quadrupled — the so-called “sin tax” the people of
this county already pay on alcohol and tobacco. The money was supposed
to fund repairs at Progressive Field, Rocket Arena, and the Cleveland
Browns’ new stadium in Brook Park.

They were right to say wait. And the rest of us, in Garfield Heights
and across this county, should use this pause to ask a question the
county hasn’t given us a good answer to: where exactly are the
priorities?

The numbers, side by side

I have spent a lot of time over the last few months walking through
Cuyahoga County’s budget and spending decisions with my neighbors. Here
is what the public record actually shows, just in the past sixty days:

April 28, 2026 — The Cuyahoga County Council
approved taking on nearly $1 billion in debt to build a new
corrections center on 72 acres at Transportation Boulevard and Granger
Road, right here in Garfield Heights. They did this over the formal
cease-and-desist letter of the County Prosecutor, over a state-audit
request, and despite the fact that the Sheriff himself has said
publicly he was never asked to move his office. Construction is
expected to start in earnest within weeks.

May 18, 2026 — The same County Council approved
another $200 million to renovate the downtown Justice Center
and Court Tower — a project that, just a few weeks earlier, the county’s
own judges had backed away from over concerns it looked like a
quid-pro-quo deal tied to the new jail.

May 21, 2026 — State lawmakers told the
county no, you cannot triple or quadruple the sin tax to fund stadium
repairs. The current tax already brings in about $14 million a
year, dedicated to keeping up the three publicly-owned sports
venues.

So inside of one month, the county was prepared to commit nearly
$1.2 billion in new public debt and capital spending — and on
top of that, ask working families to pay three or four times as much
in alcohol and tobacco taxes.

The Garfield Heights side of the ledger

I have written before about what the new jail in our city means for
our tax base. Seventy-two acres of prime commercial land — land that
should be paying its fair share of property tax to support our schools,
our streets, our police and fire — becomes permanently tax-exempt
the moment the county takes ownership. By my own math, drawing on
property values from comparable commercial parcels and the existing
millage rates in our jurisdiction, the City of Garfield Heights, our
School District, the County Library, and the regional MetroParks will
together lose roughly $37.3 million in property tax revenue every
single year — for as long as that facility stands.

Of that, more than $20 million each year would have gone to
Garfield Heights City Schools, a district that just publicly reported
a $2.9 million budget deficit. No PILOT — Payment in Lieu of
Taxes — has been announced to make our city whole. Not one cent.

The county is asking the families who shop at our grocery stores,
who buy a beer on Friday night, who smoke a cigarette on the way home
from a long shift — to pay three times more in tax so the team
owners can play in nicer rooms.

The sin tax is, by its nature, a regressive tax. It falls hardest
on the people who can least afford to absorb another increase to the
cost of the small things that get them through the week. When the
county tripled or quadrupled that tax, it would have been
paid by the family in Garfield Heights.

So before we ask any working family in Garfield Heights AND the
County for more, I think the county owes its residents three plain
answers:

One — Where is the PILOT for Garfield Heights to offset the
permanent loss of $37 million a year in tax revenue from the jail
site?

Two — Why is $1 billion in new jail debt and $200 million in
courthouse repairs a higher priority than the school deficit in the
city you are putting the jail in?

Three — Where is the public accounting of how the existing $14
million a year in sin-tax revenue is being spent before we are asked
to triple it?

Columbus, in this rare case, was the adult in the room

On this one, the statehouse did exactly what an oversight body is
supposed to do. They looked at the ask, looked at the timing, looked
at everything else the county is already in the middle of, and they
said no — not yet, not without more answers.

That is the same answer the people of Garfield Heights have been
asking for all year. The county is in the middle of the biggest
spending decisions it has made in a generation. Before any
voter — in Garfield Heights — is asked to pay even one more cent,
that voter is entitled to look at the full picture.

This pause is an opportunity. Let’s use it.