Better than the taxpayers?
The Cincinnati Bengals are still working on extending their stadium lease with Hamilton County and hope the State of Ohio will help with the process.
The Cleveland Browns were hoping to do it with state-issued bonds, but Senate Republicans had a different plan.
According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Senate GOP’s initial proposal for the state’s budget would include “raiding” the unclaimed property fund.”
The fund currently holds $4.8 billion, and the plan is to remove $1.7 billion from it, including $600 million for the Browns and $1.1 billion for other stadium projects, including upgrades to Paycor Stadium.
Cleveland’s $600 million would be paid back in tax revenue, but there was no clear plan for how the Bengals would pay back any funding they received from the current proposal.
There is no word on whether or not Ohio Governor Mike DeWine would support this bill, but he has supported raising taxes on sportsbooks to cover funding from the initial state bonds proposal.
The Bengals and Hamilton County seem to have a plan in place without state funding, but they will likely take any of it that they can get.