For two decades, Cuyahoga County has supported arts nonprofits with revenue from a tax on cigarettes. In November 2024, voters approved more than doubling the tax to 70 cents per pack.
How the arts tax got started
In 2006, voters approved a 30-cent tax on packs of cigarettes to support the arts. The funds are distributed by Cuyahoga Arts & Culture. Declining population, a weak economy and a loss of corporate support prompted the 10-year tax. It was renewed ahead of schedule in 2015. In 2024, it was again renewed ahead of schedule, with an increase to 70 cents.
What it is not
The arts cigarette tax is separate from the 4.5-cent sin tax on cigarettes approved in 1990 to fund construction of venues for the Cleveland Browns, Guardians and Cavaliers.
Revenue on the decline
Prior to the 70-cent increase, cigarette tax revenue decreased as smoking lost popularity and the county’s population declined. CAC data shows funding fell from a high of $19.5 million in 2008 to $11.7 million in 2022. In total, from 2007 until 2024, the tax is estimated to have brought in about $250 million, benefiting everything from the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame to neighborhood mural projects and afterschool arts programs. Ideastream Public Media receives a portion of its funding from CAC and also contributed to the 2024 ballot initiative.
Efforts to expand the tax
In March 2021, the Cleveland-based Arts & Culture Action Committee asked the state legislature to expand the tax. In January 2023, Gov. Mike DeWine signed Senate Bill 164. It gave Cuyahoga County the right to ask voters to expand the tax to vape products and other forms of tobacco as well as to charge the cigarette tax as a percentage of the price rather than a flat 30 cents. However, that was reversed in the state budget passed in 2023. The state now allows the county only to ask voters to increase the fixed-rate tax.
Fred Bidwell, chairman of the board for Assembly for the Arts and the head of the Arts & Culture Action Committee, said part of the reason for rolling back Senate Bill 164 is that the mechanism for collecting the funds on cigarettes - tax stamps - doesn't exist for vape products.
One other issue with the percentage-based proposal is it may conflict with Ohio’s 1998 agreement with the tobacco industry, requiring such taxes to be based on per-pack-prices, according to Dan Tierney, a spokesperson for DeWine.
“There are concerns a wholesale tax could endanger Ohio receiving funds due to noncompliance,” he said in 2023.
A property tax issue, which would have also provided arts funding, failed with voters in 2004. A tax on video rentals was considered at one point. The city’s bed tax was increased in 2019 to fund improvements at Progressive Field and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, but it did not specifically earmark funds for the arts.
What’s next
Upon passage of Issue 55 increasing the tax in 2024, Assembly for the Arts’ CEO Jeremy Johnson said taxing something other than cigarettes could be an option in the future.
“Those other issues are firmly on our plate,” he said. “We haven't forgotten about them."
In 2023, the CAC board approved identical funding levels for 2024 and 2025. Grants funded by the revenue from the 70-cent tax will be awarded in late 2025 for 2026.
