Cuyahoga County now has a source of money to pay for a new $750 million jail: anyone who buys goods within the county’s borders.
In a special end-of-year meeting, a divided County Council on Thursday voted 6-5 to extend the life of a 0.25% sales tax that was set to expire in 2027. Now the tax, which the county has used since 2007 for big downtown projects, will remain on the books until 2067.
A one-vote majority on the 11-member body struck down efforts to tie the tax specifically to the jail project. The failed legislative maneuver would have delayed the passage of the extension and sent the measure to the voters, the county law director said.
County Executive Chris Ronayne now has the money and the site to build a new jail campus on largely vacant land in Garfield Heights.
The vote caps a years-long debate over the future of the jail and broader Justice Center complex in which it sits. Adding gravity to that debate was a U.S. Marshals Service report, released in 2018 amid a string of deaths in the jail, that excoriated conditions in the building.
“Good people are spending a night, tonight, in that jail in not the best of conditions as we all know,” Ronayne told council members. “And there are persons who have done bad things, that are very bad, and are spending the night there, but still deserve the dignity of a humane facility.”
Ronayne’s support for the extension on Thursday – without sending it to the ballot – marked a reversal in his position. As a candidate, he said a sales tax extension should be decided by the voters.
The county executive told Signal Cleveland that delaying a decision on the sales tax would only increase the cost of maintaining the current Justice Center by “putting, essentially, band-aids on an old structure.” The county executive disagreed with criticism that council was rushing the matter through.
“It’s been a six-year journey,” Ronayne said. “It is time to move forward.”
The county estimates that the tax extension would raise $3.4 billion, factoring in inflation, between 2028 and 2063. That would give the county the cash it needs to pay the $1.8 billion in debt service on jail construction over 40 years, with money left over for additional projects.
Council’s two Republicans – Michael Gallagher and Jack Schron – joined Democrats Sunny Simon, Yvonne Conwell and Cheryl Stephens in opposing the tax extension measure.
Voting for the extension were Patrick Kelly, Martin Sweeney, Dale Miller, Scott Tuma, Council President Pernel Jones and Meredith Turner.
Schron said he supported Ronayne’s plan to build a new jail. But the Republican also made case for delaying a decision and putting the question to voters. He invoked Jimmy Dimora, the county commissioner later convicted of corruption charges who voted for the sales tax in 2007.
“One of the 11 of us will be imposing a tax extension of $4 billion, creating a legacy of ignoring the voice of the people,” Schron said.
Opponents of a new jail, who have showed up for years at council meetings to criticize the county’s plans, voiced their displeasure after the vote.
“It’s appalling that the council called this fake emergency meeting to fast track this measure without any meaningful public input,” organizer Kareem Henton said in an emailed statement. “They voted against an amendment because they knew if there was time for the public to comment they would feel the pressure to do what voters actually wanted – which was to say no to this onerous tax.”
At 8%, Cuyahoga County’s sales tax is the highest in Ohio. The 0.25% portion of that tax has proven useful for the county. Money from that collection has helped pay for the Huntington Convention Center, the Global Center for Health Innovation, the publicly owned Hilton Cleveland Downtown and the transformation of Rocket Mortgage Field House.
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