Gov. Mike DeWine said he's still hopeful that his fellow Republicans in the House will keep the tax hikes on cigarettes, sports betting operators and marijuana that he put into his proposed budget. And he said he is concerned about the plan for state-backed bonds the owners of the Cleveland Browns are requesting for a $3.4 billion domed stadium project.
DeWine has proposed doubling the sports gambling operators tax from 20% to 40% to create a fund any team can access for sports facilities projects. He said that's a better approach than the domed stadium proposal from the Haslam Sports Group, which has asked for $600 million in state-backed bonds to go along with $600 million in local funding and $1.2 billion from Jimmy and Dee Haslam. The team is offering $38 million in cash up front.
“That bond that would generate $600 million will cost over $900 million. Every penny of that will come out of general fund dollars in the future to pay the bond down," DeWine said. "That is a ton of money to be taking out of our budget that we need, to spend money on schools, that we need to spend money on mental health challenges. We have a lot of things that we need to focus on in this state."
And DeWine said the bond plan would just set the state up for more requests for other teams.
"We’ll constantly be looked at for additional funds," DeWine said. "The people who are making the most money on sports are the gaming companies. They're online—they're not in Ohio, and they're taking a tremendous amount of money out of here. And so raising the tax that we charge them will not cost Ohioans anything, but it will, in fact, create the money that we can use to help sports stadiums and ballparks in the future."
Some Republican lawmakers have suggested they like the bond proposal, and House Finance chair Brian Stewart said he and most Republicans don’t support DeWine’s tax increases. Along with the increase in the tax on sports gambling operators for the sports facilities fund, DeWine has proposed increasing the tax on cigarettes by $1.50 to fund a $1,000 child tax credit. He's also proposed doubling the marijuana tax from 10% to 20%, with that revenue going to a dozen line items such as the 9-8-8 suicide hotline and grants to bring drivers' education back to high schools.
"I'm not going to get too worried about anything. I've been through a few budgets with the legislature, and quite frankly, we've ended up in our first three budgets with virtually everything that we wanted," DeWine said. "So I'm not going to get too excited about it at this point."
The House could unveil its version of the budget in the next week. Speaker Matt Huffman (R-Lima) has said the goal is to have it passed by the House before Easter break in late April.
