The Ohio Senate has proposed helping the Browns move to Brook Park by tapping the states Unclaimed Property Fund.

The Senate budget would give most public schools in the state a financial boost, but critics say it's still underfunded.

Education.

And unless you want to see a data center, the days of visiting the I-X Center for Events may be over.

Ideas is next.

Hello, and welcome to IDEAS.

I'm Mike McIntyre.

Thank you for joining us.

The Ohio Senate released its proposed state budget this week seeking to help the Browns move to Brook Park by giving the team $600 million from the unclaimed property fund.

The money also would salt an account for other stadium projects.

The Senate's budget also flattens the income tax to a single 2.75% rate and would put more money toward schools than the House or governor's version.

Though critics say it still underfund schools in East Cleveland after the conviction on corruption charges of Mayor Brandon King.

Two people now claim to be the mayor and the days of car and boat shows at the center appear to be over.

After Cleveland City Council reworked the lease to pave the way for a Fortune 100 company to move in.

Reportedly, an Amazon data center.

joining me for the roundtable this week from Ideastream Public Media, criminal justice reporter Matt Richmond and Akron Canton area reporter Abigail Boater.

In Columbus, Statehouse news Bureau reporter Sarah Donaldson.

Let's get ready to roundtable.

The Ohio Senate, like the House, gives $600 million to the Browns for a Brook Park stadium in their budget proposal.

But the Senate version would pluck money from the state's unclaimed property fund instead of backing bonds to borrow the cash.

The Senate also proposes using millions from the fund to pay for other stadium projects.

Sarah, State Senator Jerry Serino, Republican of Kirtland, chaired the committee drawing up the budget.

He says the unclaimed funds idea is smart because there's no interest, no borrowing.

Yeah, that's why he likes it a lot.

It's not, you know, taxpayer money per say, funding this in his mind.

So he says that it should be more appealing to some of those lawmakers in the House who expressed reservation about the fact that this was a Bonds program over in the House.

This is obviously kind of the third iteration, iteration version three of how to fund stadium construction around Cleveland in suburban Cleveland.

And, you know, this pitch from Serino and Senate Republicans is very different than DeWine's, which, of course, going back to Governor Mike DeWine's proposal, that was the one to raise the sports gambling tax on operators.

But it is in some ways similar because Serino puts forward this idea that this would fund potentially other stadium construction in the future.

It's a grant program, so maybe the Bengals could get money down the line.

You know, maybe some of these other teams that are seeing the Browns come forward with this ask also get money.

It's also suggesting that the Haslam's put money up front, as the House's plan did, $50 million.

But then if that runs out, if for some reason the projections don't come through another 50 million from the Haslam's.

Yeah, I mean, they're asking the Haslam's to have a little more skin in the game here and that's obviously like Risen as this has moved forward.

Originally in the House, I think it was like 36 million then they up to 50 million in that escrow proposal.

And now there's this additional $50 million credit line that the Senate is putting forward.

So, you know, this all ties back to there are projections about how much tax revenue will come back from this project, because this project, how it's been pitched, it's not just a stadium.

It's going to be an economic development around the area in Brook Park.

And so the state is relying on those projections to say, well, we're going to get tax revenue back.

But if it isn't as good as you say it is, we need a little bit of assurance.

What's interesting is that this continues to happen both with the House and with the Senate in the face of the mayor of the city of Cleveland opposing this, as well as the county executive, where this thing would be located.

Usually when you have the leaders of the community saying we don't want it, the state doesn't then pony up the money.

The really the owners endorsement, big endorsement of this was a greater Cleveland partnership.

And that was a committee, not the entire GCP board, which said, yeah, we think this is a good idea, but the state is it seems as though it's moving forward.

Is it fait accompli that there will be funding of some sort throughout the reconciliation process and that the Browns are as good as gone?

It's it's hard to say.

I mean, Governor Mike DeWine keeps his cards really close to his chest, but he obviously worked to include stadium construction funding in his initial budget proposal.

And I've heard from Haslam, I've talked to at least one House Republican who said he really liked what the Senate actually put forward.

So I think they're going to find a way to get money to the Browns, the 600 million that they're asking for in some form or another.

Because, you know, folks, lawmakers in Columbus, Republican lawmakers, especially most Democrats, have opposed this.

And there are some Republicans privately who have said, you know, they're not super, super sure about it, but I think the money is going to be in there.

You know, I guess we'll see.

I don't have a crystal ball, you know, three weeks in a row.

She does not have a crystal ball.

You got to get on that.

I kind of got one.

I kind of got one this week because I now have the Senate budget cop dog.

So I'm feeling better.

Okay, good.

Let me ask you about the unclaimed property fund.

Is that your money and mine?

Possibly.

Could we go look it up?

What?

What is this money?

Where is it coming from?

Why is so much of it sitting there?

Yeah, so it is basically these are assets that the state has taken over.

So it's coming from uncapped paychecks, you know, dormant bank accounts and typically a bank or maybe someone who manages an inheritance, if that money has sat for a while, they'll turn it over to the Department of Commerce, which has this division of unclaimed funds, and they manage that division of unclaimed funds.

So you're right.

I mean, at the end of the day, it is money that is maybe not necessarily the state of Ohio's.

It's being managed by the state of Ohio, but I asked Senator Serino about this and he tells me that, A, you know, this money has been sitting for a very, very long time.

Any of the money that they would be reclaiming, I believe, would have to have like a ten year time of not being claimed.

And that's ten years in the state's division of unclaimed funds.

So it could have been sitting for a long time before that.

And he also, you know, told me that, you know, this is not an unprecedented idea to tap into these unclaimed funds.

And that also he mentioned that county executives up in Cleveland have tapped into unclaimed funds before.

So he he's pretty he was pretty adamant about that, that, you know, this is not an unprecedented idea.

There's definitely going to be some pushback.

But the state on the flip side is saying they're going to put up some money in the budget to give additional resources to the Department of Commerce.

So if there is an influx, like I imagine anyone who knows that they have unclaimed funds sitting somewhere has potentially reached out in the last day or two to try and claim those funds.

And you don't have to know.

You can just go on a website, put your name in, which I did yesterday.

I got no money coming, but well, I'm sorry.

What was that ago?

$200 recently.

All right, so Abigail collected 200.

I heard one of our other folks I won't identify because I don't want to be going to her dad's place, But her dad had 24 grand sitting for me from someone else's account, like an aunt or something, and he was the executor.

So there are those type of things.

I thought it was funny.

I know Christine Rader and a number of other representatives had put out a press release that said, Get your money before the Haslam's do, and we're guiding people on how to go to the website and get their money.

And on the flipside, there has been some frustration that, you know, folks say that they tried to get those unclaimed funds and it hasn't been a super easy process.

So this is definitely like every iteration before it when it comes to the Cleveland Browns and this never ending saga, it's not without some controversy.

The city of East Cleveland has two people claiming the title of mayor.

The president of City Council Atik Shabazz says he's mayor by authority of the charter.

Interim Mayor Sandra morgan says she's still on the job by authority of the court.

And we just got a report this morning I heard on our air, Matt, that that Lady Shabazz fired the assistant law director for weighing in on who was a legitimate white mayor, saying it was Morgan.

So we've got a bit of a mess in East Cleveland.

Yeah, to say that to say the least, that he he sent the letter on, you know, mayor of Cleveland letterhead, signed it, mayor of East Cleveland, and the lawyer that he fired, Heather McCullough, is the person who would be answering this court case challenging Sandra morgan.

So it's not clear who the lawyer is going to be working for the city of East Cleveland because they're going to challenge her standing to.

And the conflict comes down to, like you said, whether with Brandon King's conviction, whether that sort of automatically removes him from office, making the office empty, meaning that then the charter controls who becomes mayor and, you know, which is what council said the case.

Yeah, in Ohio is a home rule state that's in the Constitution.

And there's no I mean, it'd be hard to think of anything that's more kind of central to home rule than picking who runs your city.

But, you know, the the the process that was followed to install interim Mayor Sandra morgan kind of even when it was first announced that she was going to be the interim mayor, Judge Russo said based on state law, that means that you remain intermediary either until Brandon King is found not guilty or until there's another election.

And so, you know, these two sides have dug in pretty hard on are there enough chairs at city hall for two mayors?

I suppose they're both there.

But the question is, do either one of them I mean, how does this break?

Does it do does a court have to come in?

Does the Supreme Court have to rule or do we literally have two people in city hall?

And if you say, I want to see the mayor, they're not sure which direction you're supposed to turn.

Yeah.

So it's June.

Now.

There's an election in November.

You know, it'll be interesting to see how quickly the the Court of Appeals acts and has their first decision.

And if it's if it's unanimous and they're just very clear this is how it's going to go, then it might quickly get, you know, kind of rejected by the Supreme Court.

But, you know, there is a scenario where they kind of stay in this sort of limbo until a new mayor is sworn in in January.

And you can't get anything done in a city that way if you don't know who's in charge.

No, Fortunately, they've they've passed the budget.

They did that few weeks after Morgan was was appointed.

But, yeah, I mean, there there is going to be just kind of chaos.

It's going to be competing decisions, attempts to make action, and it's probably going to get more and more rancorous as both sides kind of bicker about this.

Yeah, the city has endured a number of of corruption episodes over its history.

A number of mayors who've been convicted of corruption.

Now this the latest one, certainly beset by corruption problems in East Cleveland.

Now you've gotten beyond that and now you're in a little I wanted to say a word.

You can't say it out loud here, some sort of match about who is in charge, How is it affecting the residents there?

I know we've had some we went out and got some feedback from folks.

Yeah, Yeah.

My colleague Abby Marshall was at it council.

I mean, you know, Shabazz was was sworn in Sunday evening and so she went out there Monday morning to see kind of what was going on in in city hall.

And there were people go in there trying to do business.

And yeah, basically, you know, the person they talked to said that they're just fed up with all of this, that it's becoming really difficult to kind of just exist in Cleveland because things just never get better.

Akron Mayor Seamus Malik focused on public safety in his second State of the City speech this week, announcing plans to tackle gun violence and increase trust in police.

Abigail, you mentioned in your reporting from Locke three, by the way, one of the coolest venues for the state of the city because there's a renovated park and then overhead where the three Goodyear blimps, it was so distracting.

Yeah.

The mayor himself was like, how am I going to do the speech?

I keep looking at these things, these whales in the sky.

Regardless, he did deliver a lot of substance.

He mentioned that shootings and homicides are trending down for Akron.

But the mayor said public safety remains a priority.

What type of programs is he talking about implementing?

So the big announcement was a program that Malik says the city will launch this fall.

It's a hospital linked to Violence interruption program, so they would meet victims of gun violence in the hospital in an effort to kind of stop that cycle of violence there.

Malik said Summa health in Cleveland Clinic have already signed onto the program, and this kind of follows a similar trend.

They launched a similar program last year that puts credible messengers out on the streets and those are people that are well known in the community and they have a connection to the justice system and they're out in the communities helping peacefully resolve conflicts.

And the city says that they've had great success with that program.

And so they're they're going to launch this this hospital based one this year.

Trust in police is a difficult issue for many police departments, particularly in Akron, where there have been police shootings that have certainly roiled the community.

So what is the issue there?

How is he talking about being able to build trust not just with the city, but with partners?

Yeah.

So another thing he announced was that the police department has developed a comprehensive community engagement plan.

And I asked him about this because especially for the police chief, Brian Harding, I know engagement with the community is one of his priority.

So I know that they are doing a lot of this.

And Malik said that this plan kind of looks at every single person in the department from all different, you know, from detectives to people that work in the records room to kind of see how they can engage with the public.

He says everyone in the department should have the opportunity to engage with the public.

And that means, you know, doing more foot bank patrols, engaging with youth specifically to tackle that youth gun violence program.

And Malik still pushing for a comprehensive review of the police's use of force policy.

He's been working on this since last year.

Council voted down his first effort, which cost more than half a million dollars, and that's why they said they couldn't go for it.

They have introduced a new proposal which is half the price.

And Malik says he hopes that, you know, they can get to a compromise with council to get that use of force review passed.

And I think that's something that the community largely wants to see from police as well.

He Ohioans have cried for help with skyrocketing property taxes, and Republicans in the House have responded by introducing the property tax Relief Now Act.

Proponents say it would deliver $3.5 billion in tax relief Sarah There are several ideas in the bill.

It's a lot of different stuff.

Let's talk about some of the main ones.

Yeah, I mean, it really combines a lot of different ideas that Republican lawmakers have been talking about.

So it creates a new tax credit that goes back to home homeowners.

If the value of their property increases and their school district is at the 20 mill floor, it would allow governments, local governments, to expand the home tax homestead, tax exemption to include people who need help.

Would authorize a local board of county commissioners the power to provide local homestead tax exemptions to residents that can be used on top of state provided homestead exemptions.

I mean, it kind of throws a lot of ideas together.

I'm definitely interested to see about the timeline with this because of course they're in the middle of budget season and there are some property tax proposals in the budget as well.

So there are some things that are in the current taxing plan mechanism where if your property value goes up there still there's a governor on it.

You don't you don't pay a huge amount.

But when the millage floor, as you just mentioned, hits that 20 mills, then you can start collecting more money from people.

So what they're saying is when you get to that point, when your taxes would go up, then we'd have other things like a rebate or some other type of relief for you.

Yeah, they want to provide, you know, additional relief when you hit that floor.

You're right.

The bill also gives more power to budget commissioners in counties.

Yes.

And I am checking on this because my colleague Joe has been following this story a lot more.

I believe it lets them have more oversight on levies.

I think they can kind of adjust levies and they can hold hearings if there's I think it's a 30%, 30% correct, 30% carryover and reduce future levies in those cases.

So that's kind of that carryover cap is what we've been hearing, of course, with the budget as well.

Right.

We've heard that carryover cap being increased in the Senate budget as compared to the House budget.

There's all kinds of like I said, this is complicated stuff, but they say they're trying to address various aspects of the property tax.

One of the things in a separate bill, Republican lawmakers want to make it tougher to pass property tax levies with a measure that would raise the threshold to increase a property tax in your community to 60% rather than a simple majority, which is now used for every election.

Sponsors say the type of threshold exists in other states, but school districts are saying, Wait a minute, you're telling me I now have to win 60%, which is an almost impossible task?

Yeah, you've heard this argument play out statewide.

Of course not when it comes to levies, but on statewide ballot issues.

You know, the sponsor of this bill, David Thomas, said that most local levies pass with more than 60% approval.

So it really wouldn't affect that many, except the ones that are pretty tied, except the ones that it does.

And I guess, you know, other states have thresholds like this.

I believe Arizona does that 60% threshold, but it affects not just school levies, but police levies, fire levies, library levies.

And it's definitely, I believe, a little concerning to folks who do have to go to the ballot to get money.

When I saw it was an impossible task.

I'm thinking in my mind of districts like Parma, which have tried over and over to pass a levy, and the idea that they would then make it a 60% threshold that's already nearly impossible at 50%.

Yeah, I mean, you've seen that all over.

You've seen schools going back to the ballot and back to the ballot.

And more and more of these levees are failing.

Let me ask one other question.

We're seeing all of these property tax reforms this particular piece of legislation, we've talked about a bunch of other ideas of the cap in the carry over of the cap of the percentage of money that districts can carry over.

Is all of this, do you think a concerted effort to head off a citizen driven ballot measure that would end property taxes?

I think that definitely plays into it.

You know, one of the sponsors behind a lot of these actions represented of David Thomas, he is he's new to the legislature.

He's a freshman and he ran on property taxes.

So I've heard from him even before that amendment that he was really, really excited about doing things with property taxes.

But lawmakers, including Republican Speaker Matt Huffman, say that, you know, this citizen driven ballot measure to eliminate property taxes outright is a little bit of a comment on the fact that the legislature's done very little on property taxes so far.

The Senate's budget gives 60% of public schools an increase in funding, and leaders say it provides more money for public education than either the governor's budget or the House budget.

It funds the fair school funding plan, which the House's budget just completely abandoned.

But still, critics are saying it's not enough.

They're not they're not funding enough for education.

Yeah, and that kind of goes back to so the fair school funding plan, that is what proponents call it, the fair school funding plan.

It was a legislative reform passed by a passed General Assembly in 2021.

And it's based on the actual costs for educating a student.

So this year was expected to be this biennium.

So 2026, 2027 was expected to be the final phase in of the fair school funding plan.

Governor DeWine and the Senate keep the fair school funding plan phase.

And to a point, obviously the proposals differ a little bit, but there's frustration from folks in the education space because they fund them at those 20, 21 levels, so they don't adjust for inflation.

Still, though, a lot more than the House would have proposed.

And so we'll see that shake out in the reconciliation.

Yeah.

And the one thing I have heard, you know, under the Fair school funding plan, not every district would receive an increase because of how the formula is done.

So that is one of the things that House lawmakers have pointed to as a reason for wanting to get behind their kind of bridge formula that abandons the fair school funding plan.

They say that every district would get an increase in 2026.

Still, of course, folks in education say it's not enough.

All right.

One last thing about the budget, and that is a big change is in income tax and right now there's only two levels of income and income tax, 2.75% for those who make less than 26 grand, 3.5% for those who make more.

It would all go down eventually to a flat 2.75% tax.

The Republicans say this is something that's been necessary.

We've been driving at it forever.

The critics and a number of Democrats say this is going to just really blow a hole in the budget and only benefit those who are already making good money and and get a slight tax break as a result.

Yeah, and Mike, I mean, obviously it's, you know, a little bit later in the show, but I definitely want to highlight this because I had one lawmaker tell me that the entire budget, the entire Senate budget was defined by this income tax cut.

I mean, you're talking about, you know, one more than $1 billion worth of savings for high earners, those folks who are making more than six figures when if this income tax cut goes through.

But that's revenue loss for the state.

If those folks don't invest their money.

You know, this lawmaker told me that they were looking under couch cushions to find money and, you know, make cuts in other places and move general revenue funds around to account for this income tax cut.

It's a really, really big priority of Senate President Rob Collins.

You know, gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has been running on eliminating the income tax.

The position is you can't really eliminate the income tax if it's not a flat tax.

So, you know, the state's been flattening its income tax rate for years and this has been long debated.

We'll see what happens because the governor, Mike DeWine, has expressed that he does not think the state's in a position to necessarily the income tax.

But I think when you're talking about the Senate budget, many other things were shaped with this income tax cut in mind.

the center's days was an exhibition space for big events such as auto, boat and home and garden shows are numbered.

Cleveland City Council amended the lease on the city owned property this week, clearing the way for a Fortune 100 company to take over the site.

Reportedly, an Amazon data facility So we've got big change there.

And yeah, I had one of one email say it was the place was so soulless and it was just me, but yet it's part of everybody's growing up in Cleveland, our history.

Yeah, yeah.

There's lots of, you know, famous shows that come through there every year.

I am always very aware when the boat show is at the AG Center, but I guess those do you have to know you want to.

I have dreams.

I would go to the air.

I would have gone to the Expo Center show.

Yeah.

The problem with with a boat is then you have to maintain the boat.

Yes, but.

But yeah, it is cool to go and see.

Sometimes they put like a little water skiing demonstration there.

There's been beer shows.

I've gone to a couple of those there.

It just is a place.

And then don't forget the former amusement indoor amusement park and the jingle which.

I could sing for you right now, but won't.

But yeah.

So a big change though that that that's a property.

Now the problem is it's right next to the airport.

If the airport need to expand, you would need that property.

And apparently there's a clause involved in this that allows that to happen.

Oh, I didn't know that.

I mean, they haven't officially announced who the company is.

There was the the report.

They haven't announced it, Right.

Yeah.

But I mean, it kind of looks like a data center.

It seems appropriate that that's what they were put in there.

Yeah, for sure.

It doesn't look like an event space, frankly, but.

But it does work.

And yes, apparently, according to the reporting that I saw, there's like a ten year if the city needed the needed, but city still owns it, it could cancel the lease.

So you got to get your data center out of here because we're building a larger airport here, which doesn't seem likely to happen, but that Grace's is built into it.

Monday on the Sound of Ideas.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

Millions of Americans are living with ADHD.

We'll talk about who is being diagnosed and what kinds of treatment are prescribed.

I'm Mike McIntyre.

Thank you so much for watching.

And stay safe.