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July 28, 2009
Stadium tax breaks cost Cleveland $18.6m a year
Judith Grant Long has long pointed out that property tax exemptions represent a hidden public cost of sports stadium construction, and now indefatigable Cleveland journalist Roldo Bartimole has estimated the exact costs in his hometown: About $8 million a year for the Browns, $3.8 million a year for the Cavs, and $4.8 million a year for the Indians. All three teams received new homes mostly built with public funds — and made sure that the public would own the buildings as well (though not the profit-making revenue streams they generate), since that absolves them of owing property tax.
Bartimole notes that 55% of property taxes in Cleveland go to the local school district, so that's roughly $9 million a year in education money that isn't flowing in because of the tax abatement. Let's see how the Cleveland schools are doing in the absence of those funds ... oh, dear.
