Posts Tagged public subsidy
Randy Lerner Gets $10 Million from Cleveland Fans, Non-Fans
Posted by Roldo Bartimole in Economic Development, Media on November 5, 2009
Cleveland Browns fans may be angry with Randy Lerner and the Cleveland Browns football team but that didn’t stop them from contributing $10.9 million to help him this year.
In October, Cuyahoga County taxpayers slipped another $1.2 million to pay for the Browns Stadium.
The Browns are 1-7 this season. And a pretty putrid 1-7 from what I hear.
This year, sin tax contributors – all we purchasers of wine, alcohol and cigarettes in Cuyahoga County only – have paid $10,900,768.11 to help Lerner. It helps pay for the Browns Stadium. Lerner pays $250,000 a year to rent the place. The city pays more than $400,000 each year for taxes on the land. The stadium is tax exempt. Free for Lerner.
Thank you taxpayers. Don’t mention it Randy.
Did you catch the so-called interview Tony Grossi did with Lerner in today’s Plain Dealer. Talk about consumer fraud.
The headline says: Lerner discusses GM’s firing; reaffirms support for Mangini.” Should have said, “Lerner WON’T discuss ANYTHING.”
It’s an email interview with Lerner which allows for no follow-up questions. So the Browns owner gets away with murder. It’s called letting the Big Guy off the hook. Did the same with Modell until he left town. Then truth seeped into the Pee Dee.
He’s allowed, by this method, to slip away in the dark mist.
The entire email conversation between Grossi and Lerner can be found here:
http://www.cleveland.com/browns/index.ssf/2009/11/cleveland_browns_owner_randy_l.html
Can we reform a football team ownership?
Doing What We Don’t Need, Not Doing What We Need
Posted by Roldo Bartimole in Economic Development, Politicians on November 1, 2009
November, 1, 2009… Stampede, stampede , stampede.
That’s The Plain Dealer’s editorial push on Issues 3 & 6, as it was on Gateway, as it was on Browns Stadium, as it was on the Medical Mart and as it is on the monopoly casino.
What do they have in common?
Build – Build – Build.
That is the Pee Dee’s desire – concrete. That’s the Establishment’s desire – concrete.
Why? Profits. A semblance of Progress.
Do you notice great improvement? Do you notice Progress?
They build what we don’t need and they deprive us of what we do need.
They build, over and over, and tell us this is what we need to make Cleveland and Northeast Ohio better. This is Progress.
But what’s the major problem in Cleveland and Northeast Ohio?
Education. Of all ages. That’s what we need.
Taking care of people. That’s what we need.
But over and over again it’s build something for the multi-millionaires and even billionaires.
Forget about the poor. Forget about the needs of ordinary people.
Build, build, build. Build and it will come. It never comes.
More retail outlets even though we have much too much retail.
Subsidize office space. Even though we have too much office space.
Expand, expand, expand, they tell us.
Even though expansion simply leads to too much unneeded growth.
We must GROW, they say. Even though we have too much of almost everything. They still want to expand.
Take care of the human problems we have, we should say.
That will come later, they say. Later never comes.
So vote NO on Issue 3, vote NO on issue 5, vote NO on issue 6.
Vote YES only on Cuyahoga Community College’s levy. But start looking closely at the operations at CCC.
We keep doing what THEY want. Yet we keep sinking deeper and deeper.
Let’s be intuitive. Let’s do the opposite of what leaders tell us to do this time. Let’s think for ourselves. About what we really need and what we really don’t need.
Let’s give them the shaft this time. They surely deserve it.