Posts Tagged garbage
Does Cleveland Really Need a Garbage Tax?
Posted by Roldo Bartimole in Economic Development, Politicians on December 10, 2009
December 10, 2009… The flow of federal stimulus money into Cleveland makes me wonder why Mayor Frank Jackson and his merry elves at City Council need to burden residents with a garbage tax.
City Council members authorized Mayor Jackson to begin collecting $8 a month for garbage collections. Having been elected for four years the Council members (all but three) figured that they had enough time for constituents to get used to paying another regressive tax.
And they seem to be getting away with it.
However, extra revenue from the federal government is flowing into the city and county. ProPublico has a list and calls it “the most comprehensive publicly available analysis of stimulus spending we know of.”
In one grant, Cleveland will get $11,793,750 for law enforcement. That suggests to me that a lot of city money is being freed up.
ProPublico, a journalism in the public interest reporting site, has listed all grants and loans to Cuyahoga County. It can be found here:
http://projects.propublica.org/recovery/locale/ohio/cuyahoga
Other grants to the city of Cleveland include grants of $10,554,939 and $5,768,717 for airport improvements. And $6,409,225 for Community Development Block Grant money. Not sure if the latter is the regular allotment for CDBG money that ordinarily comes to the city. Another $5 million grant is listed for law enforcement equipment.
RTA (Regional Transit Authority) also has grants allocated of $23,429,203 for capital and operating funds and $10,164,215 for rehabbing rail stations. It makes you wonder whether the cuts RTA is making are totally necessary. Here’s a link to an RTA fund:
http://projects.propublica.org/recovery/item/43293
The City of Cleveland also will get $9.8 million to deal with problems of homelessness.
There are some strange loans, at least in my opinion. A number of Dunkin Donut businesses will get more than $500,000 in loans as will other food outlets.
Other big winners in these grants are Case-Western Reserve University, Cleveland Clinic and Cleveland State University.
Cleveland Taxes… Fair and Unfair, Dumb and Dumber
Posted by Roldo Bartimole in Economic Development, Politicians on November 17, 2009
November 17, 2009… I guess I’m just stupid. I don’t get it. Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson wants to tax garbage to raise $13 million a year. Then he wants to tax non-profits to raise $5 million a year.
But residents already pay taxes to have their garbage picked up. Non-profits don’t any pay taxes. Seems to be a contradiction right there. Don’t you go after those that don’t pay taxes rather than those that do?
But there’s more.
Most Cleveland residents are not doing that well. Many of them you would call low income. Non-profits may be having some money problems but there’s plenty of money there.
Example: The Cleveland Clinic, likely the biggest of non-profits, had $3.4 BILLION in revenues in 2007, latest IRS report available.
Example: University Hospitals had net assets of nearly a billion, $994 million, in 2001, latest I could find.
Example: Cleveland Museum of Art has net assets of $873 million.
Example: Cleveland Foundation – assets of $1.49 billion.
Example: Gund Foundation – Assets of more than a half of billion dollars.
So from these behemoths you’d get $5 million a year but from working and unemployed stiffs you’d get $13 million? And you know the $9.25 garbage monthly fee will soon be $12, then $15 and then more.
So from the big money institutions you want $5 million but from people, who already pay plenty in income and property taxes, you want $13 million a year.
Doesn’t sound right. Not to me. Not to anyone with any sense.
What sounds even more ridiculous is this. The city would tax the Cleveland Museum of Art and the County gives the Cleveland Museum of Art $1.5 million in 2008 from the Arts & Culture fund from the cigarette tax.
Do we tax Playhouse Square, a non-profit that also gets subsidies from the County and got more than $1.5 million in 2008 from the County’s Culture & Arts fund, via a tax on cigarettes from the County?
Do you tax the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a non-profit? The Rock Hall got $880,000 from the Arts & Culture 2008 fund.
Do you give with one hand and take back with the other?
And then there’s this. Do you tax the tax exempt property users? They don’t pay taxes.
Would there be the tax on Progressive Field, on Q Arena, Browns Stadium? If not, why not? Shouldn’t they chip in?
It seems as though the plans for clipping people for chump change that hurts little guys but doesn’t much damage the big ones hasn’t been thought out and doesn’t make sense.
Go back to the drawing board, Mr. Mayor.