Posts Tagged Gund
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.
Plain Dealer Gives Free Boost to Gilbert’s Subsidized Restaurants
Posted by Roldo Bartimole in Economic Development, Media, People on October 20, 2009
October 20, 2009… Well, thank you Plain Dealer for the free publicity. Just what independent downtown restaurants needed – two new publicly-subsidized restaurants in the Quicken Arena to draw business away from other restaurants.
The Pee Dee Tuesday in a prominently displayed Metro front page applauded the opening of two new restaurants by the “Iron Chef” (Michael Symon).
The Pee Dee devoted four columns, eight inches deep with a nice headline: “Symon opens 2 restaurants at the Q,” accompanied by an attractive photo of the business and one of Symon.
“The superstars won’t all be on the court this season at The Q,” sings the Pee Dee. Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay. My, oh my, what a wonderful day! Plenty of sunshine headed their way.
Now we’ll have a celebrity chef on our subsidy list, too. What can be better in these dark days when so many can’t even find a job?
We – the public – paid dearly for the restaurant facilities at the Quicken Arena and now Dan Gilbert gets the benefit. So when he gets a monopoly casino, he can have more restaurants that compete with the independent downtown restaurant business.
Yes, let’s give it all to the billionaire. Doesn’t it make you feel good?
And remember, these restaurants have the luxury of not having to pay property taxes. Oh, boy. The entire Quicken Arena facilities are tax free! Tim Hagan and Mike White – flying to Columbus in a private corporate plane – got the legislature to exempt all the Q property FOREVER! What fun guys.
And isn’t this exactly what Dan Gilbert will do in the casino he can build if Issue 3 passes – build new restaurants that will attract or keep business from privately-owned restaurants throughout downtown.
Why aren’t they screaming?
Let’s shut down Cleveland street business and force everyone into the Quicken Arena, Progressive Field or Browns Field. Let everything be a sports bar.
Let me tell you again what we gave the sports franchise owners at the Quicken (formerly Gund) Arena. Sammy’s at the Arena has space for 323 guests, 63 at the bar. Didn’t matter that a Gateway board member – Denise Fugo – was given the restaurant business, requiring her, of course, to leave the board.
Here’s what taxpayers helped provide – a $1,841,380 restaurant sporting $178,750 of new furnishings and some $350,000 worth of kitchen equipment. Total bill: $2,370,134.
Remember: No burden of paying those nasty property taxes either.
No wonder Sammy’s says it serves “off-site private residences, yachts, businesses and anywhere else.” Yachts, of course.
Altogether, food concessions at the Quicken Arena cost $6,119,520.
Some of the cost at Sammy’s included 300 restaurant chairs, costing more than $100,000; bar stools at $500 each ($13,500 total); and terrazzo tables at $13,415 each. One sports bar kitchen cost $263,000.
Concession stands with grills and pizza service were well spotted on two levels, I wrote back in 1994, ranging in cost from $62,000 to $132,000 and totaling in cost $1,048,350. The Press, of course, got some special treatment with a banquet kitchen at $121,050. No wonder they’re such boosters and don’t write about the corruptive side of professional sports. Usually, right before their eyes.
Hey, nothing’s too good for our sports heroes and their owners.
The “beer room” (need it cold) cost $63,700. The automatic system for dispensing the beer cost $200,000 and to dispense soda, only $180,000.
There’s a lot more including ice cream outlets at a hefty cost of $198,000.
But when you’re having fun, what’s the difference. Especially when you don’t have to pay. The politicians – all legal, they say – provided major league service – free of charge essentially.
They’ll do the same for the Medical Mart, don’t worry.
The Pee Dee, of course, never told the public any of this. They only cheerlead, they don’t lead.
The Quicken Arena, in addition to Cavs games, has 175 special events during the year, Cleveland promoters tell us. The public, which sprung for most of the dough to build this special place, gets ZERO from the extra events, a gift to billionaires – both the Gunds and Gilbert.
That’s the way our system – free enterprise – works. Free.
By the way, if you can afford these fancy priced places in the Q, you won’t have to bother touching a Cleveland street. You can simply drive to the tax-free Gateway garage because we also provided – at great cost to the City of Cleveland – 1,700 free spaces to the sports owners in the garage for special people.
So when the Pee Dee promotes these new restaurant facilities without telling you the back story, do you think this is professional journalism at its best?
If you do, send a complimentary note to Susan Goldberg, the Pee Dee editor for her and her staff’s fine work.