(The Center Square) – A lawsuit was filed Monday to block Ohio from using unclaimed funds to pay for a portion of a new Cleveland Browns stadium and other Ohio professional sports stadiums.
The lawsuit was filed by DannLaw, including former Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann and former State Representative Jeffrey A. Crossman, on behalf of three named Ohio residents and a class of unnamed individuals who the unclaimed funds belong to.
The lawsuit claims Ohio would be violating its constitution by using $600 million in unclaimed funds to pay for part of a new $2.4 billion Browns stadium in Brook Park with plans to pay the funds back over time through a tax capture at the site.
The lawsuit claims the funds are private property and not for public use. The group had promised a lawsuit if Ohio included the stadium funding mechanism in its budget, which was signed into law by Gov. Mike DeWine.
“The State of Ohio intends to steal over a billion dollars in private property from its citizens and pour it into the pockets of Jimmy Haslam, one of America’s richest men,” Crossman said in a statement. “Everyday Ohioans are rightfully outraged by this blatant abuse of power. The government can’t just take someone’s property and give it to someone else. This type of outrageous behavior ignited the American revolution 250 years ago. Unfortunately, the majority in the General Assembly and the governor are ignoring the lesson King George learned at Bunker Hill.”
The unclaimed funds plan was introduced in June as Ohio Senate President Rob McColley’s newsletter said the plan “saves the state $400 million in debt service” as it takes the funds out of the $3.7 billion balance of unclaimed funds held by the state.
Legislative leaders called the plan a “visionary economic plan” and a “win-win for taxpayers and the economy.”
Economists who have extensively studied the public funding of sports stadiums, however, have consistently shown that stadiums do not produce the promised benefits and instead rely on diverted spending from elsewhere in a region.
“This is not free money,” economist J.C. Bradbury of Kennesaw State University in Georgia told The Center Square. “You can’t just pull public stadium funding out of the air.”
Dann noted that Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost also opposes the plan.
“The provisions of Ohio’s Constitution that protect private property from being taken for private use are not a suggestion, they are a command,” Dann said. “The legislature and governor have no authority to convert Ohioan’s private property into a slush fund that can be used to subsidize a billionaire campaign contributor’s private football stadium.
“We’re filing this case because the rule of law is the foundation of our democracy and because no one, no matter how wealthy or politically connected they may be, can be allowed to blithely ignore the Constitution.”
