by Chuck Hoven

   (Plain Press November 2025) Chief Executive Officer of the Center for Community Solutions Emily Campbell issued a report in September of 2022 that said “the United States Census Bureau’s 2021 one-year estimates show that nearly 105,000 people in the City of Cleveland lived in poverty in 2021. Of those, more than 33,500 are children. At 45.5 percent, Cleveland has the highest child poverty rate of any large United States city with a population greater than 300,000. Cleveland just edged out Detroit to be second worst for working age poverty, and fourth in older adult poverty, ahead of Miami, Boston and Philadelphia.”

   The report further stated that Cleveland overall poverty rate in 2021 was 29.3 percent, nearly 2.5 times the United States average of 12.8 percent.

NEWS ANALYSIS

   Why does Cleveland continue to have the nation’s highest child poverty rate and be among the poorest big cities in the nation? Why haven’t the federal dollars given to the City of Cleveland as part of the War on Poverty or the Community Development Block Grant funds given to the City over the years reduced this poverty? Why have our local political leaders not focused on providing the resources and programs needed for people to improve their economic well-being?

   Some insight into why Cleveland has not focused on tackling poverty can be seen in some of the speculation as to why City of Cleveland Director of Economic Development Tessa Jackson was fired by Mayor Justin Bibb. A June 24, 2023 article by Courtney Astolfi in the Cleveland Plain Dealer titled “Fired: Cleveland’s economic development director booted amid developer complaints” indicates how Jackson, shortly before her firing, testified before City Council about her concern that the City was over subsidizing development projects and noted her efforts to “make sure that city loans are repaid when developers fail to show they’ve used the money to create jobs, as promised.”

   Jackson spoke of the failure of the City of Cleveland’s investments to address poverty in Cleveland. She also noted development dollars have been going to a privileged few while others were left out. Astolfi’s Plain Dealer article quotes Jackson’s comments to Cleveland City Council: “We talk about how we’re going to help people, and I look at that half a billion dollars. When you look at historic poverty rates, historic unemployment rates — that money hasn’t really moved the bar. I mean, you can’t spend a half a billion dollars on economic development and not move the bar for anybody, for the people in this community.”

   From the information available at the time of her firing, it seems politically connected developers were upset with Jackson for trying to hold them accountable for jobs they promised when given subsidies and did not deliver. They were also upset with her for her efforts to get developers to pay back City loans for which they were in default for millions of dollars.

   The treatment of Tessa Jackson for standing up to developers is just one example of how the City of Cleveland politics favors serving the privileged over the poor.

   In an article in the August 2020 Plain Press titled “Cleveland City Council has a chance to do the right thing as it reviews its tax abatement policy”, I suggested a way that Cleveland City Council could hold schools and libraries harmless when awarding tax abatements. The article suggested, “If City Council members are not inclined to end the tax abatement program, perhaps they can be persuaded to hold the school system and libraries harmless. Take funds from the payroll taxes generated by these new developments and make sure the schools and the libraries are reimbursed dollar for dollar for property tax that would have gone to them if not for the abatement.”

   City Council did not follow my advice. With new homeowners and developers of new apartment buildings receiving 15-year tax abatements, the tax burden born by existing Cleveland homeowners increases. Just few years later the Cleveland Metropolitan School District went to voters again seeking passage of two property tax levies. In a letter to the editor in the June 2024 Plain Press by Arthur Hargate titled “Schools seek property tax increase, while privileged few receive tax abatements and exemptions”, Hargate notes how the impact of years of subsidies to the privileged have hurt the school system.

   Hargate asks, “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?”

   Hargate says, “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.”

   More recently, Mayor Justin Bibb proposed, and City Council approved, a downtown Tax Increment Financing (TIF) zone called Shore to Core to Shore. All new property tax revenue generated in the zone (except for school taxes) will go to a fund to subsidize development. The major benefactor will be billionaire developer and Cavalier’s owner Dan Gilbert.

   Cleveland residents who hope their government would give them a hand up while they struggle with the impact of poverty on their lives and the lives of their children cannot compete with the greed of those that seem to have access to our political leaders. The handouts continue to those who could very well afford to finance their own projects, while the poor are neglected. There was a time in Cleveland’s past when wealthy individuals competed to make donations for the public good. Note the libraries donated by Andrew Carnegie, or the land donated by the Wade family for our Art Museum. Now, it seems the wealthy billionaires, who own our sports teams, seek subsidies from the public.

   The recent property tax assessments in Cuyahoga County have brought the issue of the property tax burden on homeowners to a head. With so many people not paying any property taxes due to abatements, the burden shifts to those who are paying. Many are long term homeowners whose incomes make it difficult to make the payments. Some are seeing their properties facing tax foreclosure as a result. The public schools, libraries, Metroparks. Cuyahoga County, the City of Cleveland and Cuyahoga Community College all depend on property taxes to provide programs and services to Cleveland residents. Revenues are down for all these entities because of the foreclosures and the many properties that have received tax abatements or the properties that are in a Tax Increment Financing Zone.

   Due to the downturn in revenue, Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne has proposed severe cuts to many social services that benefit the area’s poorest residents. One of those cuts proposed is a 25% reduction in the budget for Say Yes. The funds help support staff that work to help students seeking scholarships promised by the Say Yes to Cleveland program. It is a shame when Cleveland students, among the poorest in the nation, are shortchanged. It is a moral outrage when the property tax dollars that could fund their program have been given away to those who are much more privileged.

   Another example of subsidies being shifted from Cleveland’s school children to the wealthy is the money promised to fund the Comprehensive Extracurricular Activities Program of the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. In 1995, Cleveland City Council passed ordinance 1025-A which levied a tax on parking, an admissions tax, and a motor vehicle leasing tax for the purpose of funding “recreational, cultural and extracurricular programs in the Cleveland Public Schools, a portion of the costs of renovating, improving, and maintaining the municipal stadium in the city and other municipal purposes.”

   The public discussions at the time called for the taxes levied by this ordinance to make the school system whole so it would be compensated for the property tax exemption received by the municipal stadium. Initially the amount given to the schools was about $2 million a year. The amount going to the school programs was eventually reduced to about $1 million a year. Meanwhile the amount given to the stadium for repairs ranged from about $13 million to $20 million a year. Currently the schools are receiving about $1.25 million a year from the City of Cleveland.

   With the Cleveland Browns planning to leave the City, there is an opportunity for the Justin Bibb administration and Cleveland City Council to award all the funds raised by these taxes to the Cleveland Metropolitan School District for its extracurricular activities and after school programs. Students attending afterschool programs have better school attendance than their peers, and their grades are also higher than those of their peers. Those doing well in school will benefit throughout their lives.

   Having a robust after school program will make a difference to parents as well. With students safe at after school programs, parents will have more choices in employment. Overall, such a move will benefit Cleveland residents and help families to work their way out of poverty. If the City of Cleveland and Cleveland City Council want to make an impact that will benefit Clevelanders for many generations, they should assure that all the funds raised from the 1995 tax legislation go to the Comprehensive Extracurricular Activities Program of the Cleveland Metropolitan School District.