This issue keeps bubbling up in other threads. These are some of the things the city and county have committed discretionary funds to in recent years:

 

*Bringing back the Cleveland Browns (the initial stadium build was out of sin tax money, I believe, but the lease committed the city to spending tens of millions in discretionary dollars for upgrades: http://www.cleveland.com/cityhall/index.ssf/2013/11/cleveland_city_council_approve_5.html)

*The convention center and med mart (the biggest item on this list by far), which were funded by county sales tax increase approved by the commissioners

*The waterfront pedestrian bridge (the city has pledged $10M in bond revenue and the county has pledged another $10M)

*The Playhouse Square chandelier and gateways project (about $4M of the $16M budget was from county casino money; other reports say at least $1M more came from the city: http://www.cleveland.com/arts/index.ssf/2013/06/a_towering_outdoor_chandelier.html)

*Public Square (it's not easy to sort out how much of the "public" money is really discretionary, because much of it appears to be for utility work, so out of CPP budget, for example)

 

Some of the money on this list is from bond revenue, so can likely be spent only on capital improvements, but general obligation bond revenue is nothing more than future discretionary revenue moved up into an upfront lump sum. So there is still a direct opportunity cost for things like police services when the bonds are repaid out of the general fund.

 

What mistakes have I made on this list? What items are missing?

 

The point isn't so much about crying over money that's already been committed, but moving forward, there will be many other proposals to spend public money that could be used for other things, so this can be a place to discuss the issue in the broader context, without diverting project-specific threads.

Here's a Mark Naymik column on Cleveland.com posted just now all about the $2M the city is spending every year from its general fund to pay for the recent improvements to First Energy Stadium. Go Browns.

 

http://www.cleveland.com/naymik/index.ssf/2015/07/how_your_tax_dollars_got_spent.html

I'm a serious Browns fan but that's just wrong... especially when the expense isn't shared by the suburbs.

I'm a serious Browns fan but that's just wrong... especially when the expense isn't shared by the suburbs.

 

Agreed 100%.  Something needs to be done about the funding for improvements and repairs.  And I also agree that Haslem should give the money to the city to hire cops.

Signal Cleveland has a nifty little gadget that shows how Cleveland is spending its $512 million American Rescue Plan Act money.  It's a one-time windfall of cash, which, in my opinion should be spent on one-time, impactful investments.  If I'm reading Signal correctly, the largest amount to date has been used for routine operating costs, breaking the cardinal rule: you don't spend one-time money on recurring costs.  The other items, all worthy in themselves, are simply frittering away the cash on a list of ho-hum ideas that have been hanging around unfunded for years.

 

I'd give the Bibb administration a C- on this program so far. 

 

https://signalcleveland.org/follow-clevelands-stimulus-spending-with-this-arpa-project-tracker-american-rescue-plan-act/?utm_campaign=Signals 216&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--WE7RfDiFp7GjL3YbGT1dVloc2FFJ3H90zbtL3CSh0vZ2O26YTS3x7ug12la1CEAZzgRS-zc4jlLAwb1PwlzLeTLkZgg&_hsmi=301930186&utm_content=301930186&utm_source=hs_email

Are you talking about the budget shortfalls section or other areas also?

 

We shouldn’t expect that number to grow. You should look at it not as $100m of $190m spent but $100m of $512m allocated. 

And it’s not surprising that there were budgetary shortfalls during COVID, that’s part of what ARPA was created to address.

 

4 hours ago, Henke said:

Are you talking about the budget shortfalls section or other areas also?

 

We shouldn’t expect that number to grow. You should look at it not as $100m of $190m spent but $100m of $512m allocated. 

And it’s not surprising that there were budgetary shortfalls during COVID, that’s part of what ARPA was created to address.

 

 

I just don't see any new thinking anywhere in the spending so far.  Wish I did.

On 4/19/2024 at 6:13 AM, dave2017 said:

I wish the city could have buried all the utility lines to beautify the streets.

 

1 hour ago, mrclifton88 said:

Cleveland loves to not bury utilities in new developments. 

I'd have no objections to using ARPA money to bury power lines. I'm not sure that should be our top priority, but it seems like a good use of funds, particularly anywhere the street has to be worked on anyway.