As the Cleveland Metropolitan School District looks for ways to stay out of the financial red, there’s one pot of wealth it can’t tap: tax-abated properties.
Cleveland offers a 15-year property tax abatement to encourage new homebuilding and renovations. The exact amount of abatement varies by census tract.
Last year, abatements waived the equivalent of almost $41.5 million in property tax payments for the Cleveland schools, according to CMSD’s most recent state audit. That’s up from $34.7 million the prior year.
The amount jumped for a few reasons, according to the Cuyahoga County fiscal office. More expensive tax-abated properties came on the market, county property valuations increased and voters passed a school levy.
CMSD projects a nearly $50 million deficit by 2029. Staff are now bracing for layoffs.
There’s a chicken-or-the-egg quality to the debate over tax abatements. The argument for abatements says they’re necessary for building those new homes in the first place. Without the abatement, there wouldn’t be a new house, and therefore the schools wouldn’t have seen new money anyway, the argument goes.
On the other side of the debate is a different food metaphor. Abatements turn the tax base into “Swiss cheese,” full of holes, an abatement critic told Signal Cleveland a couple of years ago. (You can read our closer look at the issue from 2024 here.)
Tax-abated properties start paying into the school district once the 15-year break expires. So CMSD will eventually receive full tax payments from recently built homes. But not soon.
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City Council decides to play nice
Cleveland City Council is getting in touch with its gentler side.
Inspired by talk of civility on a recent trip to the National League of Cities conference, council passed a resolution calling for more courtesy in government.
“This Council urges civility in local government and supports calls for local governments to promote dignity, respect and constructive dialogue in public meetings and community engagement,” the legislation reads.
For decades, City Council has hosted Cleveland’s political cage matches. Not anymore, evidently.
No more calling a public commenter “punk ass.”
No more musing about buying a gun because of protesters at council meetings.
No more warning that council’s opponents would be “dealt with.”
No more deriding a colleague as “irrelevant and pathetic” before disappearing through a back door.
No more telling a reporter, “One of these days I’m going to kick your f—ing ass.”
And certainly no more throwing chairs.
Today is a new day on Cleveland City Council. But tomorrow? We’ll see.
Discovered by Documenters: a City Council alternate budget?
Some council members want to come up with their own annual city budget proposals that could compete with what the mayor wants to do.
Currently, under the city’s charter, the mayor’s office presents council with a budget estimate each year. Council and the administration spend around two weeks discussing it at length before passing it with some changes.
But Ward 12 Council Member Tanmay Shah said a group of members has been talking about drawing up a council version of the budget. Then both parties could reconcile their priorities into a single budget. He shared the idea at a Ward 12 meeting that was attended by Ward 5 Council Member Richard Starr.
“City Council is in a more of a reactive phase,” Shah told constituents. “I know a group of us, including Councilman Starr here, want to push council to have our own priorities as well, so that we can be more proactive about what our neighborhoods need.”
Credit to Documenter Tucker Handley for catching the news at the Ward 12 meeting. Read Tucker’s notes here.
Uphill climb for the Bibb recall campaign
Critics of Mayor Justin Bibb are using his own branding against him in their bid to recall him from office just months after he won reelection.
Bibb has labeled his second-term agenda “The Cleveland Era.” The anti-Bibb campaign beat him to the punch by buying the web URL clevelandera.com.
Recalling a mayor is a tall order. After starting the process, the campaign has 30 days to collect signatures from 20% of the people who voted in the last municipal election. If the campaign falls short, it has 20 days to get more signatures.
The magic number for putting a recall on the ballot is around 8,900 signatures. Juan Collado Diaz, a frequent Cleveland City Council public commenter and recall leader, said he is aiming for 10,000 to 15,000 — no small task.
“We’re going to put our days and nights into making this happen,” he said.
Efforts to recall former Mayor Frank Jackson never made it to the ballot. In a 1978 recall vote, then-Mayor Dennis Kucinich held on to office by the skin of his teeth. Bibb easily won a second term last year with 74% of the vote.
