There are a lot of ideas and some new legislation aimed at reining in property taxes in Ohio, but will it be enough to cool taxpayer anger?

Mayor Justin Bibb and County Executive Chris Ronayne are looking to the feds for help in closing Burke Lakefront Airport and Cleveland Heights.

His favorite NFL superstar has invested in his childhood memories.

He's now part owner of Cedar Point and its parent company, Ideas is next.

Hello and welcome to ideas.

I'm Mike McIntyre.

Thank you for joining us.

It seems like everyone at the statehouse is in property tax mode as several measures are being proposed.

Debated and passed to deal with rising tax burdens.

Well, any help to assuage taxpayer anger.

Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb and Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne wrote a letter to members of Congress and the U.S.

Secretary of Transportation asking for help in closing Berke Lake for an airport.

They reasoned that 450 acres of prime land on the shores of Lake Erie could be put to much better use.

Cleveland Schools CEO Warren Morgan, in his state of the school speech, painted a bright picture for his improving district's future.

But to get there, the district will face tough decisions involving staffing cuts and school consolidation.

And before he was an NFL star and Taylor Swift's fiancée, Travis Kelce was a kid from Cleveland Heights who headed West young man to Cedar Point.

This week, he became part owner as an investor in parent company Six Flags pushing for improvements.

Joining me to discuss these stories and more from industry and public media reporter Abigail Bo Tar and newscast producer Josh Boose in Columbus Statehouse News Bureau chief Karen Kasler.

Let's get ready to round table.

The Ohio House passed two bills that supporters say will offer property tax relief for homeowners, and Ohio Senator Andrew Brenner has proposed another idea.

No more local levies to fund schools.

Karen.

House Bill 186 would limit how much school taxes can increase when property values go up, as they are state wide.

How how does that happen?

Well, I'm going to see if I can explain this because as we found out with school funding in general and with property taxes in particular, this is really complicated stuff.

But House Bill 186 would cap property tax revenue growth for homeowners and more in about two thirds of districts, maybe close to three quarters at what's known as the 20 mill floor.

The 20 mill floor guarantees that districts get a minimum level of funding, that 20 mills, and there are tax reduction factors that can lower a tax rate, but it can't go below that 20 mill floor.

So that's the floor part of that.

Now that's what that one would do.

It would also provide for a tax credit based on the spikes that some homeowners have paid over the last two years.

So that was going to cost schools money.

And so the bill, as the negotiations continued on it, there was $306 million added to the bill from a fund that would be used to expand the sales tax holiday next year to pay schools so they wouldn't lose that money and still be able to offer the credit to those homeowners.

So instead of a sales tax holiday, they're taking the money and giving it to schools.

Well, an expanded sales tax holiday.

We still may get a sales tax holiday, but we might not get a two week sales tax holiday next year.

Got it.

And lawmakers expect this to save a ton of money for for taxpayers.

Well, when I've been talking to some folks, including Howard Fleenor who's the school funding guru in Ohio, he knows really all the ins and outs of this stuff.

It's looks like the combined statewide average property tax benefit from that bill that we just talked about, and the other one which would limit inside millage, which is the lowest level.

It's ten mills.

It's the lowest level of funding where a school district doesn't have to go to voters to get that basically combined.

The average benefit to homeowners would be $152, and people in one third of districts won't even get that because they're not on the 20 mill floor.

And then what does it mean for schools?

Well, it means right now that schools, like I said, that $306 million does come in to hold those schools harmless.

But the question and this was raised by Republicans and Democrats on the floor is, what do we do going forward?

Because if you're going to change things like this, you have to think about the long term impact of that.

And the state there's been this debate for a while about whether the state should be kicking in more money to help with this property tax related crisis that a lot of homeowners are feeling, or whether this should be something that schools and local governments should have to deal with on their own.

And of course, in the background of all of this is this proposal to abolish property taxes.

There's an all volunteer group right now that's gathering signatures to put that as a constitutional amendment before voters next year.

And so that's one of the things, along with the calls that they're getting from constituents, that's really kind of driving home owners or driving lawmakers to do something about property taxes.

They need almost half a million signatures.

News five was reporting this morning that they claim to have collected 100,000 at this point, and that's and remember, you need to have the, it's 400 and some change.

I can't remember the 414,000, I think.

But that's valid signatures.

So you have to gather a lot more than that to ensure that you get the valid signatures that you need.

And think about that.

They they gathered 100,000 signatures since they've been working for the last couple of months.

They only have until July.

And it's an all volunteer effort.

And I think I've said this before, but I don't think I've ever seen an all volunteer effort to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot get there, because it's a lot of work.

It really is.

Anybody who's, done this will say that.

And and if you don't hire professionals to help you out, that can make it really, really difficult.

Often when we talk about legislation in Ohio because of the majority Republicans, you it's along party lines.

The Republicans vote for it.

The Democrats vote against it.

In this case, there were a lot of Democrats that voted for it, although there were some that didn't, including the minority leader in the House, Alison Russo, who disagreed with it.

But there were a lot of Democrats that did vote for it.

Well, Allison Russo, she's the former minority leader who voted for one but then didn't vote for the other.

But she gave a speech at the end, really kind of drawing some of the criticism that Democrats and, you know, others have brought on this is that this isn't targeted property tax relief.

It doesn't help people who are the most in need of that property tax relief.

And she, of course, blamed Republican legislatures going back decades for giving money to special interests and helping, with tax breaks for wealthier Ohioans rather than funding critical services, which is a common Democratic talking point.

The current minority leader, Danny Isaacson, voted against both of these bills.

And, you know, Democrats have been saying they want other things, that they want more of the state funding involved in this, and they're concerned about the long term impact here.

All right.

Let's talk about Senator Andrew Brenner.

The Republican from Delaware County proposed what he calls something big and bold.

And that is, you wouldn't vote anymore on your local school levies.

We got a number of them coming up on the ballot very soon here.

Instead, it would be 120 mill levy across the state, plus an increase in the state sales tax by 1.75%.

That he says will fund the schools.

Well, that's the real question.

He claims that that will be enough.

And he says that basically, the Ed Choice program, which is the universal voucher program, would be folded into this.

So money would follow the student, which is what we've been hearing all along in the whole discussion about vouchers.

It would also require open enrollment.

It would, change how bussing is done and make it countywide.

Bussing potentially.

It would require all students to take standardized tests, not just students in public school districts.

So there's a lot in this proposal.

And some of these ideas have been around before.

And so that's why as we're covering this, we're trying to figure out exactly what's been put out there before and what was the reaction to it.

School groups I think are very concerned.

What I've been hearing is that this would be a massive revenue shortfall for K through 12 education, which kind of defeats the whole idea of this is that there wouldn't be these local property tax levies that people are constantly voting on, but if there's a shortfall in public education, what do you do then?

And like you mentioned at the top, increasing the state sales tax, local sales taxes on top of that, that could create some pretty high sales taxes, especially in urban areas.

And that could be a real problem when you've got people who are already struggling.

Cleveland's mayor and the Cuyahoga County executive are pleading with the feds to help them close Burke Lakefront Airport to open up the Prime lakefront acreage for development.

the move to involve Congress is aimed at explaining expediting the process, maybe saving some money on it as well.

How?

Yeah, well, taking a step back here, there's really three different options, three different ways to close the airport.

First one, keep it open until grant obligations expire.

That's not until 2036.

You could also they could ask the FAA to release Cleveland from grant obligations.

But if they were to do that, then the city is going to owe $9.4 million in repayment money to the federal government.

The third option is congressional approval.

Now, with that, they would bypass the FAA.

They would bypass that $9.4 million.

The problem is, even though it's the fastest and even though it will save money, is not necessarily the easiest, right.

That's going to take lobbying.

And with a lot going on in Washington right now, that's could very well not be the focus.

So yeah, they could save money in the end.

They could.

That could be much easier than the other two options.

To get rid of the airport.

But it's not going to be easy.

It's interesting how the tone has changed in Cleveland.

For years, there have been people calling for closing.

Berk.

Why do we have it?

Just a, you know, a few rich people are landing there.

We've got all this land that we can do something with, and it's kind of been met with, well, it's always going to be there.

It seems the mayor, before he became mayor, said, I'm going to look into this issue now that we're on the precipice of of a running for another term, then indeed, that's the, the, the push.

And now the county executive getting full board behind that too.

Yeah.

And you know, look, look we're talking about 450 acres of land here that's been talked about with plans for years and years and years generations.

And the mayor came out very strongly and has I mean, if you had to put one thing that, Mayor Justin Bibbs had been talking about the last year, it's the waterfront constantly, consistently putting effort into the waterfront, getting state and federal grant funding to complete the waterfront project.

And, that's really been the focus.

And that will continue, I think, to be the focus, especially with the Browns leaving.

All right.

Let's transition to the stadium, on the lakefront and the fact that it's likely moving, we'll do that with an email from Daryl who said if the Browns are so important to the downtown economy, then this announcement on Burke sounds a day late and $1 billion short announcement should have been made 3 or 4 years ago, with the mayor and county executive galvanizing the state and feds behind keeping the Browns downtown at either a renovated stadium or something new at Burke that has one has clearly outmaneuvered the politicians.

I do want to say they did show plans of a stadium at Burke.

They said, here's where we could locate it.

And the response to that was, it'll take too long and we're not.

This is not it's also not shovel ready.

It's a the land has, environmental issues.

So, Daryl, that was something, I think that the mayor and the county executive have put forward, but but didn't work.

But getting back just to the stadium issue, Josh, the this would signal that the stadium we want to now have a cohesive lakefront.

We want to get Burke as well as the what would be a blank canvas of stadium site.

But the city council is not, at this moment, 100% behind the deal that Justin Bibb cut $100 million from the Haslam to to allow the team to move without opposition.

Yeah.

And I think, you know, look, even in the newsroom last week or this week, feels like last week, but a lot has happened and when, when this big announcement came.

Yeah.

Look, the mayor's going to have an announcement with the Browns.

Get ready.

We thought, what is this going to be?

What's what's going on here?

And I think, City council thought the exact same way.

So that special counsel, obviously, that's when the mayor said $100 million settlement with the Browns, and city council, a lot of them were thinking, wait a second, why weren't we involved in this?

Why were we not told about this beforehand?

So there was a special council hearing this week.

I was listening in is about two 2.5 hours.

Many council members said, look, I'm very confused.

What's going on?

I fired a filed that, followed that entire meeting, and a lot of them really grilled the mayor.

They were not happy.

Councilman Mike Polansky said, look, we're getting nothing out of this deal.

When you factor in that stadium from 1996 is not paid off yet, there's still money that needs to be, paid off on that stadium.

Others complained that this is just another example of the billionaire class, referring to Browns owners Jimmy and Haslam.

They're running the show here, and we're not getting the proper benefits that we should be.

And Council also really wanted specifics on these negotiations because, look, Bibb has been saying for a long time now we are going to keep we want to keep the Browns here.

He's with Chris running the county executive.

We want to keep the Browns in place in downtown Cleveland.

That's the only way.

And then it was everything's fine.

$100 million.

Thank you so much.

So, council wanted specifics.

Council wanted more money.

And Bibb, you know, to give him credit.

His take was, look, I got $100 million.

You told me not to leave empty handed.

I did not leave empty handed.

They're going to pay for the demolition of the stadium.

They're going to have some of that money for neighborhoods around northeast or around Cleveland.

If I could get more money, he said, I would have.

The Browns are moving.

It's a done deal.

Which is really the first time that he had said that that he said, look, this is this is not going to happen in downtown Cleveland.

And then he went on and, Mike, you alluded to this a little bit, but the mayor went on to talk about the model law.

The mayor went on to talk about how the state gave the team money and changed the model law, and how he could not have foreseen this coming.

And if he knew what he knew, you know, obviously things have changed.

So, the league says the Browns would owe the city nothing.

They did not have to pay up.

And Bibb said he got what he could.

I thought it was, kind of a funny moment there, too, when Brian Casey, who has been adamantly against this, suggested that the team then change his name.

We should strip Cleveland out of it there, the Brook Park Browns, Brook Park, Browns.

And not only I wrote this down, I got to find it here.

He said, Brian Casey, one of my favorite quotes of the week, he said, that, here it is.

I kind of look at this, like dating a girl that doesn't want to be with you anymore.

Common sense tells you let her go, but your heart tells you the team belongs in the city of Cleveland.

And essentially, look, Brian Casey is saying forever.

For everyone that grew up in Cleveland watching Browns games, watching games with their with their families, going to the, stadium, it's not going to be the same.

It sounds like he has a dog pound tattooed to remove.

Cleveland Metropolitan School District CEO Warren Morgan said hard decisions are coming as the district incorporates consolidation of buildings and to reduce staff due to an enrollment decline and funding cuts.

Abigail, what do we know about the consolidation plan so far?

The district has been gathering input over the past year about consolidating buildings and Morgan says that those decisions on how many buildings and which ones that will be closed or combined, those will be presented to the school board sometime next month.

And he kind of spoke a lot about, you know, why this is so important to do.

He says that students are missing opportunities at many of those schools.

They lack electives.

College level courses or Advanced Placement courses.

So it just makes education in the city very, uneven, not not equitable.

78% of high schools offer college courses, right now.

Morgan says all high schools next year will have access.

And then almost 60% of high schools offer career pathways.

And Morgan says that all of the schools will have those opportunities after consolidation.

And we don't know how many staff members will be cut if buildings are closed or merged.

And Morgan says that those facility changes will take place in the 2026 2027 school year.

So that's coming up.

Our Connor Morris has been all over that story.

And, he and I were both sitting at the same table at this state of the schools.

It was pretty extraordinary.

There was a moment there where a video clip was played of a recent graduate who said, I wish I had these opportunities.

And when it came back to the CEO, he was really choked up.

Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, it clearly just the fact I mean, we know so much about where your zip code, where you live has such an impact on your health and your life and your education.

And so I think the fact that, you know, you can have such a different educational opportunities based on which high school you go to in the same city is clearly a problem that Morgan Morgan wants to address.

I mean, it's emotional.

People have a lot of emotions tied up in these schools.

He he touched on how, you know, you're not going to pacify everyone, but, you know, he clearly sees that this even though schools aren't filled, like they're wasting money on having so many schools half empty and education is, you know, faltering because of that, kids aren't getting the education that they deserve in the city right now because of that.

A lot of students in the auditorium at the convention center for the speech, and they were the ones that got to ask the questions, which I thought was really brilliant.

One of them, sophomore said, look, we're good kids and we're smart and we're working hard, but the reason we're able to advance is because of the game plan that's being put out by our teachers and by adults that are in this system.

And I don't want to see them get laid off.

I don't want to see them go.

And it was interesting because Morgan said, listen, I'm not going to sugarcoat it.

I just can't tell you how many.

But yeah, we're likely to reduce force.

And I just, you know, the details are going to be coming next.

One, I think we're going to get some real some real, emotional impact.

Yeah, it'll be tough.

I mean, he said essentially, like we've been telling school leaders over the past year as we've been thinking about this, that this will impact you like we can't.

It's clear that's what's going to happen.

But, I mean, clearly at the heart of the school district should be the education of students.

And so he's saying that is what's more important.

But I mean, he did say that he's, you know, they're going to try to make the, them be retirements, attrition, leaving the system like not filling jobs.

So, you know, I think kind of hoping that it won't be mass layoffs.

But at this point we just we just don't know what that picture is.

A new master plan for the abandoned Akron inner belt was unveiled yesterday, after more than a year of community input.

The City of Akron is set to bring pedestrian improvements, mobile grocery stores, and housing to the decommissioned and vacant stretch of highway and Abigail the Inner belt, like many highway projects throughout history, split a thriving black neighborhood.

This plan aims to address that.

Yeah, the inner belt displaced thousands of black residents and like, really disconnected the city.

Kind of like split it in half almost.

So this plan aims to better connect Akron's East and west sides.

And it's not just about physically fixing like the flow of the city.

Planners are also looking at repairing problems with the economy, housing and open spaces.

I went to one of the open houses, I think one of the first ones that they had, and it was really interesting.

They had like data on how, job and income was impacted.

People in the inner belt had lower incomes than the rest of the city.

They went to college less and the rest of the city, their graduation rates were less.

So it's not just about people being physically displaced.

It's about these ramifications that have echoed through generations past this, that people that the city is looking to hopefully repair with this project.

So you have a plan that's good.

Then you need to convert that and employ it, and you need money for that.

So in Akron's case, there was some money that was on the table.

Short term that appears to be gone now.

Yeah.

So the city did receive $10 million from a federal grant for redeveloping the inner build that was back in January.

They were hopeful that the it wasn't supposed to be awarded, that they were hopeful to scoot it in before the Trump administration took effect.

They did.

But then the Trump administration rolled that funding back.

So they are out that 10 million, the master plan was designed to outline some short term projects that can be completed in five years or less.

And that'll give the city more time to find funding for, for larger projects that, that that $10 million would have been used for.

And we did get some reaction, after that was unveiled and it was encouraging people to kind of looked at it and said, okay, you heard us.

Yeah, absolutely.

Sorry.

Johnson was at the event last night.

And there was just such a I mean, there still isn't a part of the city, such a distrust that city officials aren't listening to residents.

And this, you know, honestly, really traumatizing thing happened to their families, to their community so many decades ago.

And they didn't feel I mean, it took until a couple years ago for the city to apologize for that.

And so, you know, the feedback that I heard last night was people really felt like they had some faith restored that the city, you know, is following through on their promises to revitalize the space, to listen to their voices and their opinions and actually implement that in the plan.

So, you know, there's still so much to go in the future, but it really seems like there's been some trust rebuild there.

Nearly 200,000 Cuyahoga County residents could lose their food benefits if the federal government shutdown doesn't end soon.

The county says recipient of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or Snap, could be cut off by November 1st.

So, Abigail, those being impacted are among our most vulnerable.

Yeah.

The program nationally helps more than 40 million low income Americans.

And county officials say those are families, children and seniors that will struggle without the benefits.

So walk us through some of the numbers the county put out during a news conference yesterday on the potential impact.

Right.

So that's more than 190,000 Cuyahoga County residents that are on Snap that are at risk of losing the benefits, they receive collectively about $35.7 million in benefits each month.

But yeah, if the Congress fails to reach a budget deal, that that won't be happening and that that averages out to about $191 per person for Ohio recipients statewide.

A bigger number.

Josh.

Yeah, 1.4 million.

And food banks are worried.

Look, they cannot meet that demand right now.

Just got a tweet on my phone, that it was, inflation has already gone, has gone up again, or remained at 3%.

And the the need is very great and they're worried they can't keep food on the shelves.

A lot of these across, not only northeast Ohio but across the state of Ohio.

And Karen, there's a rainy day fund.

It's 4 billion box.

Is it raining?

Well, that's that there have been a lot of calls for use of the rainy day fund over the last couple of years.

For many, many things, it's just under $4 billion right now, which is a record.

And, you know, certainly the using that money to backfill what the federal government may not be providing for people who are in those programs is what Democrats are saying is a good use of that fund.

As a matter of fact, I heard I heard Chris Ronayne say that if it's and if it's not raining now, I don't know when it ever is.

We've heard that.

I got to say, we've heard that, in the opioid crisis, we've heard that and, you know, the, Covid, we've heard that in a lot of different contexts.

But, yeah, this for a lot of people is a real concern because there don't seem to be any signs that the shutdown is going to end before November 1st, which is when those and those benefits would be cut off.

Well, people are going to go hungry.

Yeah, that sounds like an emergency.

The governor, though, says it's just not that easy.

You can't just take state money on a federal issue like this.

It's not just, writing a check.

Yeah.

And this bill was proposed earlier this month.

It has not yet gotten a hearing.

But I did want to add one little thing that I, did a story about, about a group and alliance in northeast Ohio in Stark County that, you know, you've seen these trunk or treat events where people, you know, decorate the cards and hand out candy to kids.

Well, this group, the, Educate Early Childhood Education Alliance in Alliance is going to be at one of these trunk or treats in alliance on Saturday tomorrow, handing out ramen noodles and Mac and cheese because they say that they want to make sure that people have food in case the shutdown goes on.

And the question then is, is, you know, are others potentially going to do something similar to this because these events are happening this weekend and next weekend?

Travis Kelce may be engaged to Taylor Swift, and he may own three Super Bowl rings with Kansas City, but he apparently needs more thrills.

The Cleveland Heights native is now part of an activist investor group owning part of Six Flags, parent company of Cedar Point.

Abigail.

He isn't just an investor here.

He says he has many, many memories of Cedar Point.

Yeah, hopefully that he remembers not from the Blue Streak is that if feel like that jostles your brain.

But yeah, he says that he wants to help preserve, you know, the special memories for others and that he couldn't pass up the chance to make Six Flags Parks special for this.

He's part of an activist group, and they are pushing for all kinds of better service.

Better, Customer service.

So we'll see how that goes.

But I think I have the same pictures that I saw him showing of, you know, me and my brothers over at, all the rides.

So the Snoopy, the ones that were.

Yeah, the ones were jostling our brains.

Monday on The Sound of Ideas on 89 seven.

KSU host Stephanie Haney will discuss Northeast Ohio's biking and hiking trails as the Rails to Trails Conservancy brings its national summit to Cleveland.

I'm Mike McIntyre.

Thank you so much for watching and stay safe.