Instead, House Speaker Huffman, a Lima Republican, wants Ohio to sell $600 million in bonds to help the Browns’ owners, Jimmy and Dee Haslam, build the Brook Park venue, rather than tax the highly profitable sports gaming companies, which, in effect, ship their lush earnings out of Ohio.
The Haslams have said they can cover $1.2 billion of the Browns project’s estimated $2.4 billion price tag, cost, if the state treasury and Cuyahoga County each pony up 25% ($600 million) by selling bonds. The bonds would be repaid by taxes collected inside a Brook Park enclave to be composed of the new stadium and adjacent businesses (parking, bars, hotels, restaurants, etc.) – in lawyer-speak, a “Transformational Major Sports Facility Mixed-Use Project District.”
It’s a fair question whether Ohio Constitution bonding rules let the state rack up debt to be repaid by taxes collected inside a new-fangled “project district.
It’s hard to understand how a legislature that underfunds public schools and, in effect, has ignored homeowners’ skyrocketing property taxes – especially, ironically, in the state’s GOP-leaning suburbs – can make a budget priority of billionaires with stakes in a losing pro football team.
Oh, wait: This is Ohio
MEANWHILE: DeWine, as expected, last week signed into law Ohio’s 2025-27 transportation budget, House Bill 54, financing highway and related construction work, much of it funded by Ohio’s gas tax (38.5 cents per gallon) and CNG and Diesel taxes (47 cents).
A boilerplate press release announcing DeWine’s OK of the highway bill included this opaque sentence: “Governor DeWine did not veto any items in House Bill 54.” That’s Statehouse code for this dicey fact: DeWine didn’t kill (as he could have, with an item-veto) an arguably unconstitutional section of the highway budget that gives juicy pay-raises to some House pals of Speaker Matt Huffman, a Lima Republican.
Current base-pay for a rank-and-file General Assembly member is $72,343, the Legislative Service Commission reports. Meanwhile, the Ohio Constitution says “no change in [General Assembly members’] compensation shall take effect during their term of office.” (The terms of all Ohio’ 99 state representatives began three months ago, on Jan. 1; DeWine signed the transportation budget last Monday,
The transportation budget ladles out a sweet pay-raise to Rep. Phil Plummer, the Dayton Republican who helped quarterback Huffman’s rise to the speakership. Last year, Plummer’s salary was $78,599. The transportation budget boosts that to $99,903 by creating a post Plummer holds called “assistant speaker pro tempore.”
And the House formerly had one majority (Republican) whip; it’ll now have four (at $84,988 each). That’s what these Huffman allies will be paid: GOP Reps. Riordan McClain, of Wyandot County’s Nevada; Steve Demetriou, of Greater Cleveland’s Bainbridge Township; Nick Santucci, of Trumbull County’s Niles; and Josh Williams, of suburban Toledo.
Keep in mind that being a General Assembly member is part-time; state legislators can and do hold outside jobs. Meanwhile, median household income in Ohio was $69,680 in 2023.
That’s funny: Somehow, Ohio households’ lagging incomes – the national median is $80,610 – isn’t something Ohio’s new transportation budget addresses.
Thomas Suddes is a former legislative reporter with The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and writes from Ohio University. You can reach him at tsuddes@gmail.com.
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