The Browns will get $600 million from Ohio to help pay for their new stadium in suburban Brook Park. The plan for coming up with the money is officially under legal attack.
Via Eric Fisher of FrontOfficeSports.com, a group of former Ohio legislators have [filed a lawsuit](https://frontofficesports.com/browns-600m-stadium-deal-hit-with-suit-over-unclaimed-money/) challenging the decision to raid the state’s “unclaimed funds” for the $600 million.
As Fisher explains it, “unclaimed funds” come from utility deposits, uncashed cashier’s checks, bank accounts, and other abandoned money. Ohio currently has nearly $5 billion in unclaimed funds.
The plan that recently became law calls for the$ $600 million to be repaid by tax revenues generated at the new stadium. Still, the plaintiffs believe the law prohibits the state from borrowing against the pool of unclaimed property.
”The state now intends to confiscate the private property . . . for the purpose of funding a private development, depriving the rightful owners of their property,” the lawsuit explains, per Fisher. “The state intends to do so, even though it has long been settled that funds held by the state of Ohio in its ‘unclaimed funds’ account are private property.”
The practical argument is that the owners of the unclaimed funds won’t miss them because they’re, you know, unclaimed. The legal argument is that using the money amounts to an unlawful (and unconstitutional) taking of private property for public purposes.
If the lawsuit is successful, it won’t keep the stadium from being built. Instead, it’ll compel the state to come up with another way to pay the $600 million.