The group decried the “fast-track” nature of the financing deal announced last month, which will use multiple public revenue streams to supplement Cavs’ owner Dan Gilbert’s private investment in an exterior overhaul. The public portion was estimated to be $70 million, but could be more than double that cost due to interest.
The GCC demanded that elected officials — Mayor Frank Jackson, County Executive Armond Budish, both city and county councils — slow down the process so the public can meaningfully have its say.
In addition to full accountability and transparency, the GCC wants to create a community investment fund with matching dollars that would go toward “urgent and concrete” regional issues in communities of need: workforce development, youth programming, housing, mental health, others.
“We’re asking for a dollar-for-dollar match,” said the Rev. Jawanza Colvin, of Olivet Institutional Baptist Church and a member of GCC’s strategy team. “We’re talking about matching dollars. It is amazing how we have the ingenuity and creativity to find the dollars to invest in a world-class arena. We are supposed to be ‘cash-strapped.’ The credit card is supposed to be ‘maxed.’ But yet, we can find, when we put our minds together, 160 million dollars [sic]. We want that same ingenuity, that same creativity, that same ability to look under the same rock that you found this money under.”
Rev. Richard Gibson, co-chair of the GCC and pastor at Elizabeth Baptist Church, reiterated earlier comments that the opposition to the deal in no way represents opposition to the Cavs. In fact, the GCC held up the team as an example of civic unity and pride; and on the court, of what can be accomplished when a group of people work together to achieve a goal.
When pressed about the details of the proposed Community Investment Fund, Gibson said the goal today was not to get mired in the details of policy. (It’s unclear, for instance, what pot of money those dollars would come from. Destination Cleveland’s budget, perhaps?) He said, rather, that the goal was to urge leaders to slow down the process.
“We get that there’s not an unlimited trough of money, we get that,” Gibson said. “But details can be worked out later. The questions need to be answered after this deal is not fast-tracked. These solutions cannot be developed on the fly. Nor do we believe that they could have been developed in the short term that was given. We all need to spend time, to come forward with the best possible solution.”
The GCC was formed five years ago as a regional faith-based coalition focused on issues of social justice and equity. Its leadership and its members mobilized voters in the decisive primary election of Michael O’Malley as County Prosecutor and in support the recent schools levy.
“You can imagine how many people we can turn out to [knock on doors]”, said Marcia Levine of Fairmount Temple, in a brief aside during prepared remarks, “when you see how many people come at 10 o’clock in the morning in the rain.”
This article appears in Jan 11-17, 2017.
Someone needs to ask Dan Gilbert about his “delayed” plans for a permanent casino. And since he won’t have a truthful answer……Dan needs to be told that reneging on one deal means he can pick up the entire renovation bill for the arena.
LakeErieSeaGulls…you’re exactly right! The State of Ohio allowed Dan Gilbert to renege on the permanent casino location that was slotted for the flats. The jobs that were to be created were the priority supposedly. If I had it to guess, I’m sure someone received a handsome ransom for allowing him not to honor his commitment. The City and County are absolutely wrong for rushing through the process to issue $160M to him for the remodeling of the Q. Dan can afford and should be afforded the benefit of paying it for himself. There are a million needs in this city worthy of $160M in assistance, just ask the residents!
second verse…same as the first
This issue is the absurdity of absurdities. Let me get this straight: the
purpose of the Sin Tax is to gouge those who purchase alcohol and cigarettes
not because anyone is trying to discourage consumption but rather so the
County can use that money to pay for sports stadiums that do not produce
anything but a fleeting moment witnessing the passing of a football, the
dribbling of a basketball and the throwing of a baseball so that such a minute
tidbit of diversion can be enjoyed by all. The stupidity of this proposition is
enough to make your head spin even though the spin doctors advocating
passage of this nonsense are already doing a pretty good job of hypnotizing
the voters to actually consider supporting it. At least the Robber Barons
of the previous centuries provided something tangible such as oil, steel,
railroads etcetera. These team owners do not even provide one tangible thing
that could ever be considered with the term value added. Almost everyone
discusses this enterprise as though it is the same thing as industry {which
it is not}. The price of admission is essentially a voluntary tax paid by those
who can afford it to pay those who dont need it. If this isnt a transfer of
wealth I dont know what is.
The real outrage here is the fact that taxes on alcohol and cigarettes will
not be used to aid in the reduction of addiction {hence the reference to sin}
but rather to stuff the pockets of all three teams who could easily afford to
pay for the repairs themselves. The vote was rammed through the last time
{under somewhat suspicious circumstances} and hear we go again. But this
time…not so fast!!! We the voters of Cuyahoga County are going to fight the
proponents on this one and we don’t care if the teams up and go somewhere
else {please see my views on entertainment below} because quite frankly there
are simply more important things than sports and the unearned money that
comes with it. Those in public office who are too stupid and lazy to find other
ways to grow a major American city need to resign and leave their self-seeking
political ambitions on the scrapheap of history. Dont ever let it be said that
this was time when the tide ran out on Cuyahoga County but rather was the
time when the voters rose up to welcome the rising tide of change and rebuked
this pathetic paradigm our previous elected leaders embraced.
Let the battle be joined.
And now to the real underlying issue at hand:
One of the most disturbing facts about our capitalist nation is the
misappropriation of funds directed to the salaries of entertainers.
Everyone should agree that the value an athlete, movie star, talk-show host,
team-owner, etcetera brings to the average citizen is very small. Granted,
they do offer a minuscule of diversion from our daily trials and
tribulations as did the jesters in the king’s court during the middle ages.
But to allow these entertainers to horde such great amounts of wealth at the
expense of more benevolent societal programs is unacceptable.
They do not provide a product or a service so why are they rewarded as such?
Our society is also subjected to the “profound wisdom” of these people
because it equates wealth with influence. Perhaps a solution to this
problem and a alternative to defeated school levies, crumbling
infrastructures, as well as all the programs established to help feed,
clothe and shelter those who cannot help themselves would be to tax this
undeserved wealth. Entertainers could keep 1% of the gross earnings reaped
from their endeavor and 99% could be deposited into the public coffers.
The old ideas of the redistribution of wealth have failed, and it is time to
adapt to modern-day preferences. People put their money into entertainment
above everything else; isn’t it time to tap that wealth? Does anyone think
this will reduce the quality of entertainment? It seems to me that when
entertainers received less income, the quality was much higher.
Joe Bialek
Cleveland, OH
“Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was
once eccentric.” Bertrand Russell