Underlying the Cleveland Browns’ proposed move to Brook Park are two critical issues: the fractured way Northeast Ohio governs itself and the region’s struggling economy.
For decades, the region has been treading water. We would be in real trouble but for the jobs and investments of the Cleveland Clinic and other health care systems. Beyond health care, the region has failed to connect in any substantial way with growth industries spawned by automation and computers.
Promoters of the Browns move promise economic growth from a new stadium and related development. But experience elsewhere counters that promise. The nonpartisan Ohio Legislative Service Commission’s review of the project emphasized that many studies of sports projects across the country have overwhelmingly concluded “there are little to no tangible impacts of sports teams and facilities on local economic activity” and that “the level of government subsidies given for the construction of facilities far exceeds any observed economic benefits when they do exist.”
If the Browns project is completed, after 15-20 years, Brook Park likely will be stuck with underperforming real estate, not the gushing revenues now being pitched. Yet Mayor Edward Orcutt had little choice but to welcome the deal.
Every mayor in Northeast Ohio operates under home rule — and with it the duty to defend and expand their own city’s tax base. In this case, it’s Orcutt versus Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb. By design, one city wins, the other loses. Although, in this case, both could turn out to be losers.
That is the ruinous side of home rule. It forces mayors to compete with one another rather than cooperate for the benefit of the region. Why should officials collaborate on a major project if only one of them gets the tax base? Long-standing competition has fractured our civic mindset and undermined meaningful economic development.
Take Lorain County’s initiative to assemble 1,000 acres of land for a major technology employer — exactly the kind of investment Northeast Ohio desperately needs. If the project succeeds, benefits will ripple throughout the region – but the taxes? They will flow only to the jurisdiction containing the 1,000 acres. There is no incentive for officials in other places to be involved so as to maximize the project’s potential and chance of success. If it does succeed, a prime reason will be its proximity to the region’s strengths and assets.
The region fuels economic growth, not individual communities. And the region’s future depends on serious collaboration among officials. But who will get the taxes?
Thomas Bier
Thomas Bier
It doesn’t have to be this way. The problem can be minimized if not eliminated with tax-base growth sharing. Here’s how it works: Each year, communities across the region that have an increase in tax base keep most of it. The remainder is pooled and shared with jurisdictions that have less or no growth, based on an objective formula. Over time, a jurisdiction can shift between being a contributor and a receiver while all places gain wherever growth is located. The system fosters cooperation, lessens tax-base disparity between communities, and aligns local decision-making with the region’s overall future.
Regional tax-base sharing would not solve all of our problems, but it would be a major step forward. It would strengthen our civic culture and signal to the nation that Northeast Ohio is fed up with treading water. The Browns project and its illusionary benefits cannot do that. But it does shine a light on what holds us back: a governing structure that pits city against city. If we want real growth, we need to start playing as a team.
Thomas Bier is retired from Cleveland State University, where he was director of the Housing Policy Research Program in what is now known as the Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs. He has been a frequent contributor to The Plain Dealer and cleveland.com.
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