To the editor:

   (Plain Press June 2024) So now the Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) wants to reach deeper into homeowners’ pockets in the form of two tax increases, euphemistically called school “levies,” that hit average Cleveland residents especially hard because it’s clear that wealthy and privileged people are simply not paying their fair share to support our urban public schools.

   Why are we not talking about decades of lavish property tax abatements for fancy hotels, swank office buildings, billionaire-owned sports franchises and luxury condos and apartments that effectively strip urban public schools of desperately needed revenue increases? Why are we not talking about gargantuan nonprofit land holdings in Cleveland and massive nonprofit endowments delivering huge income streams that are exempt from property and other tax?

LETTER

   Taxpayer provided subsidies and tax abatements for property development like luxury condos and fancy apartments are especially heinous, encouraging powerful, well-connected developers and their well-to-do clients to evade their share of support for urban public schools, while making a financial killing on their property investments.

   What do the billionaire-owned sports franchises pay in property tax?  And what do the heavily subsidized hotels, office buildings and high-rises’ pay?  And what about the massive non-profit industrial complex of hospitals and universities sitting on prime land here? Isn’t it time for them to step up along with other property owners and support our urban public schools?

   Meanwhile, the Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) and the City of Cleveland engage in mind-numbing austerity talk with respect to the public schools as if it’s somehow a good thing, sounding like sadistic neoliberal business orthodoxy: cut the fat, tighten the belt, trim the deadwood; like this is an inherently healthy process. It’s anything but healthy. It’s deeply toxic.  It’s deeply toxic because our kids are going to suffer as a result.

   As property owners, my wife and I have supported every school tax levy posed to us in the last 50 years, but now on a fixed income, the ever-increasing property valuations, driven up by tax-abated luxury developments and higher ensuing taxes, are getting harder and harder to manage. It’s especially hard because we know full-well that the lion’s share of the tax burden falls on average people, while phantom “trickle-down” tax advantages favor the wealthy, corporations and huge non-profit institutions that do not pay their fair share, while our politicians coddle them because they are big employers or campaign donors.

   When running for County Executive Chris Ronayne had suggested certain local nonprofits should step up and throw money into a pot to better support and improve community health, a great idea which should logically include support to urban public schools. The fact is our public-school funding mechanism is structurally inadequate, unfair, racist, and deeply corrupted. Isn’t it the right time to call that out publicly and do something about it?  

   My wife and I will of course support the Cleveland school levy, as we always do, because children need a decent education. We will also call out the powerful and privileged who do not pay their fair share. We hope you will too. Because sunlight is said to be a very good disinfectant, especially for moral rot.

Arthur Hargate

Cleveland