Bonus No. 1: Charlamagne Tha God: Voting won’t change things overnight…

Bonus No. 2: The one major roadblock to reforming (and defunding?) the police.

Bonus No. 3: Why are police exempt from the consequences of killing people?

Bonus No. 1: I’m so glad I don’t watch television news…

Bonus No. 2: Michael Moore is ecstatic that he was wrong.

Bonus No. 3: Michael Steele: You got to deal with stupid…

Bonus No. 4: No pictures? Then call 888.630.1776 now! Operators are standing by.

Bonus No. 1: Dave Chappelle Stand-Up Monologue.

Bonus No. 2: Uncle Ben.

Bonus No. 3: Weekend Update: Biden Wins 2020 Election

Bonus No. 4: Weekend Update: Rudy Giuliani on Trump’s Election Lawsuits.

Bonus No. 5: DC Morning.

So, President Donald John Trump lost his re-election bid and he deserves every bit of criticism coming his way because the moment the elites of the left wing of the corporatist Pro-War Pro-Business Party—aka the Democratic Party—decided that Joseph Robinette Biden was their guy, the race became Trump’s to lose for lots of reasons that don’t matter now.

That the Democrats could still win both senate seats in Georgia in the January runoff after flipping the state for Biden is beyond fantasy. This is Georgia folks and not even Stacey Yvonne Abrams has the mojo to pull of such a hat trick. The Harris-Biden administration faces at least two years of Senate Majority Leader Addison Mitchell McConnell’s gleeful domination and no Democratic, let alone any Progressive, legislation will cross the Oval Office desk.

I didn’t write President Biden’s desk there because we’ve just elected every family’s senile uncle to the most powerful office on the planet and our only hope—gawd, I feel slimy just typing this—is that Vice President Kamala Devi Harris can hold the office together and keep Biden from hurting himself or the nation. Ted Rall, writing in Previewing a Biden Presidency: Dementia, Impotence, Collapse, gives us glimpse of what is ahead:

After months of smugly predicting a blue wave landslide, Democrats can’t possibly argue that they enjoy a national mandate for significant change. This margin is too tight and too similar to the electoral college map four years ago. They are already arguing that Biden won more votes than any other candidate in history. But Republicans were energized too. Trump won the second highest. Could the Democratic Party’s endlessly fruitless search for anti-Republican Republican swing voters finally be finished?

Biden’s advisers have to be obsessing over the words of former House speaker John Boehner in 2010: “We’re going to do everything—and I mean everything we can do—to kill it, stop it, slow it down, whatever we can.” “It” was President Obama’s agenda. Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell added at the time: “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.”

2021 will be no different and Harris won’t be getting a lot of help from Progressives who held their noses and voted for her candidacy. Astead Herndon, in Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Biden’s Win, House Losses, and What’s Next for the Left for The New York Times, ledes:

For months, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been a good soldier for the Democratic Party and Joseph R. Biden Jr as he sought to defeat President Trump.

But on Saturday, in a nearly hour-long interview shortly after President-elect Biden was declared the winner, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez made clear the divisions within the party that animated the primary still exist. And she dismissed recent criticisms from some Democratic House members who have blamed the party’s left for costing them important seats. Some of the members who lost, she said, had made themselves “sitting ducks.”

Herndon doesn’t give us the full interview (maybe Ocasio-Cortez will provide a tape of the whole interview) but our paper of record did print a few edited excerpts. Herndon begins with Ocasio-Cortez’s response to these two questions:

HERNDON—We finally have a fuller understanding of the results. What’s your macro takeaway?

OCASIO-CORTEZ—Well, I think the central one is that we aren’t in a free fall to hell anymore. But whether we’re going to pick ourselves up or not is the lingering question. We paused this precipitous descent. And the question is if and how we will build ourselves back up.

We know that race is a problem, and avoiding it is not going to solve any electoral issues. We have to actively disarm the potent influence of racism at the polls.

But we also learned that progressive policies do not hurt candidates. Every single candidate that co-sponsored Medicare for All in a swing district kept their seat. We also know that co-sponsoring the Green New Deal was not a sinker. Mike Levin was an original co-sponsor of the legislation, and he kept his seat.

HERNDON—To your first point, Democrats lost seats in an election where they were expected to gain them. Is that what you are ascribing to racism and white supremacy at the polls?

OCASIO-CORTEZ—I think it’s going to be really important how the party deals with this internally, and whether the party is going to be honest about doing a real post-mortem and actually digging into why they lost. Because before we even had any data yet in a lot of these races, there was already finger-pointing that this was progressives’ fault and that this was the fault of the Movement for Black Lives.

I’ve already started looking into the actual functioning of these campaigns. And the thing is, I’ve been unseating Democrats for two years. I have been defeating D.C.C.C.-run campaigns for two years. That’s how I got to Congress. That’s how we elected Ayanna Pressley. That’s how Jamaal Bowman won. That’s how Cori Bush won. And so we know about extreme vulnerabilities in how Democrats run campaigns.

Some of this is criminal. It’s malpractice. Conor Lamb spent $2,000 on Facebook the week before the election. I don’t think anybody who is not on the internet in a real way in the year of our Lord 2020 and loses an election can blame anyone else when you’re not even really on the internet.

And I’ve looked through a lot of these campaigns that lost, and the fact of the matter is if you’re not spending $200,000 on Facebook with fund-raising, persuasion, volunteer recruitment, get-out-the-vote the week before the election, you are not firing on all cylinders. And not a single one of these campaigns were firing on all cylinders.

The rest is all downhill from there for Harris-Biden, but hopeful for Progressives and very much worth the read. Meeaaannnnwhile…

Bonus No. 1: Wrecking ball—the damage Trump could do while still president…

Bonus No. 2: Via Mary Jo—CNN’s Van Jones brought to tears…

Bonus No. 3: AOC ends truce by warning ‘incompetent’ Democratic party.

Does Cuyahoga County really want to put more tax money into another iteration of the original Medical Mart, now the Global Center of Health Innovation?

County officials have talked about a $30 million bond issue to retrofit the building into an adjacent part of the new Convention Center, a $450-million effort financed by a non-voted sales tax increase of .25, another Tim Hagan legacy we pay. It was for 40 years. It will have 27 more years in January.

Time does fly.

So add another $30 million and you can already smell the pliable County Council extending the sales tax, the most regressive tax, in a decade or two. Likely without a public vote.

The Plain Dealer reports that Dan Brady, Cuyahoga County Council president, favors the $30 million deal. What would former City Council President George Forbes think of that. Brady, then a progressive, wanted George’s scalp for siding with the usual money guys. Now he does likewise.

(This morning the PD reported Brady would soon retire in a month or two. Good luck, it’s not usual for old pols to step aside. Both he and Dona Brady, his wife, who voluntarily left City Council recently, are doing what is unusual for politicians, who often stay too long.)

The Convention business, of course, has been like a balloon smacked by a pandemic bullet. A deflated business. With a bleak outlook.

So why add space now?

Because they don’t know what else to do with the property.

It’s already been a huge burden financially. A white elephant that served its purpose. The purpose: To build a new convention business.

Back in the early 2000s, a deep recession brewing, the usual suspects were having a tough in selling the public on a new convention center. But they hit upon an idea.

A Medical Mart in Cleveland, home of the Cleveland Clinic. That would be a good sales pitch.

And it did work.

With the help of then Commissioner Hagan. Tim had a friend.

The old county regime hired MMPI. Hagan’s connection to the Chicago firm was a Kennedy friend – Chris Kennedy, son of Robert. MMPI got the lucrative contract. A no-bid deal. Packaged with a bow of monthly payments.

Here’s what I calculated MMPI walked away from Cleveland, according to County figures:

—$333,333 a month for 30 months or $10,000,000.
—$83,333 in “supplemental rent” for 30 months or $2,500,000.
—$12,000,000 for a “developer” agreement payment.
—$4,000,000 in construction cost reserve.
—$1,354,730 for “operational expenses” (July-October).

For a total payments through October, 2013, of $29,854,730.

Add the $3,000,000 final payment to get them out of town and you have a neat cost of $32,854,730.

Not a bad paycheck for a firm that should have never been in town. Thank you, Tim Hagan.
I wanted an assessment from someone who knows the convention business and knows Cleveland. How did he see this new deal?

So, I reached out to Heywood Sanders, interim chair, Dept. Public Administration, at the University of Texas San Antonio. Convention business is his specialty. He has a book on the subject, “Convention Centers Follies.”

Sanders wrote back in an e-mail:

“Only in Cleveland could county leaders conceive–in the midst of a global pandemic that has collapsed the worldwide convention and meetings market – of proposing to spend $30 million to refit the failed ‘Global Center for Health Innovation’ into more convention center space. With a justification by a consultant study from the firm that in 2003 told Philadelphia that an expanded center would boost convention center-related room nights 500,000 a year to 783,000 (last year it did 395,500).

You might think that having spent $465 million on a thoroughly failed “Med Mart,” repurposed as the clearly, fully flopped “Global Center” as well as the money-losing, can’t-pay-its-debt Hilton hotel, the county leadership would actually think about market realities.

But no, throwing good money (by the tens of millions) after bad (hundreds of millions) is the way the public’s business is done in Cleveland and Cuyahoga county. At least Jimmy Dimora provided some additional amusement value,” Sanders wrote.

This continues the push here by civic/corporate/political force to want resources to be directed toward downtown and other development to the detriment of the larger community, especially the part that has dire needs.

And disproportionally pays the regressive tax.

The County Council appears to be as docile as city council, willing to grant the desires of the corporate forces. We saw it in the sports development, in the latest arena $140 million bonds for a redo (despite 20,000 signatures to put it to a vote, thwarted by city council). We saw it in the secret funding against a city school measure by downtown developers.

The greed is overwhelming. The community, as we saw when church forces backed down on the arena 20,000 signature, is weaponless.

We have an election coming but I see little hope that it will bring change.

The forces—our local “evil geniuses” as exposed nationally in Kurt Anderson’s book of that name—have no shame for what they do. And no intention to do any better.

And no reason to stop.

Bonus No. 1: Celebration!

Bonus No. 2: Ding Dong The Witch Trump Is Dead Fired!

If you needed a reason to throw a few dollars Matt Taibbi’s way, then his paywall-proteced post—titled: Which is the Real “Working Class Party” Now?—is all the reason you need. The voter turnout in 2020 has placed Joseph Robinette Biden in the No. 1 spot for highest vote count pushed President Barack Hussein Obama’s 2008 run to No. 2.

And, slid President Donald John Trump into the No. 3 slot. Yes, larger population and all that, but Trump got more votes than any president elected before 2008. That should give us all pause. So, what the fuck happened? Taibbi ledes:

In an irony he is humorously ill-equipped to appreciate, Donald Trump by losing this week may have gained something for the Republican Party bureaucracy he took such pleasure in humiliating four years ago: a future.

He then goes on to highlight the numbers that I’ve not yet seen anywhere else.

Defying years of muddle-headed media analyses, Trump underperformed with white men, but made gains with every other demographic. Some 26 percent of his votes came from nonwhite Americans, the highest percentage for a Republican since 1960.

[Snip…]

Exit polls, which can be unreliable, pegged his national support at 32 percent-35 percent of the Latino vote. More tellingly were results in certain counties. Starr County, Texas, the county with the highest percentage of Hispanic or Latino voters—above 95 percent—voted for Hillary Clinton by a 60-point margin in 2016, but gave Biden just a five point win in 2020.

[Snip…]

Even more amazing was Trump’s performance among Black voters. Trump doubled his support with Black women, moving from 4 percent in 2016 to 8 percent, while upping his support among Black men from 13 percent to 18 percent.

[Snip…]

Trump’s numbers with the LGBTQ community were a stunner also, jumping from 14 percent to 28 percent.

[Snip…]

Trump even improved his standing among white women, 53 percent of whom were already pilloried in 2016 for voting for a man who bragged about how you “grab ‘em by the pussy, you can do anything.”

[Snip…]

Yet even here, Trump gained, earning 55 percent of the white female vote. These results, juxtaposed against the contrasting media coverage, suggested the basic divide. Joe Biden earned 57 percent of the votes of college graduates, and cleaned up in the cities. Trump won 60 percent of voters in small towns and rural areas. In simple terms, Trump won with the sort of people who do not read The Washington Post or watch MSNBC, and disagreed with their myths.

[Snip…]

Trump lost the election because of his handling of the pandemic, the top issue for 41 percent of voters, who chose Biden by a nearly 3-1 margin. But among people whose top concern was the economy—28 percent of the electorate—Trump won an incredible 80 percent of the vote.

So, what does that all mean? You’ll need to subscribe to read Taibbi’s conclusions, but for me the message—the pearl clutching of Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) notwithstanding—is that both the right (Republican) and left (Democratic) wings of the of the corporatist Pro-War Pro-Business Party don’t care about anyone but their big-bucks donors.

This is the message that Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti hammer away daily—raising the minimum wage, universal healthcare, &c.—are popular with the vast majority of working-class Americans. If the Democrats and Republicans can’t wrap their heads around that message, then the time has come to burn both parties to the ground and replace the PWPB party with a People’s Party.

Bonus No. 1: Larry Wilmore is back…!

Yesterday I dropped this shoe: If, as it now appears more than likely, Joseph Robinette Biden becomes our 46th president, he will be an empty suit for at least the next two years. Well, here’s the other: By virtue of the Senate’s Advise and Consent power, Senate Majority Leader Addison Mitchell McConnell gets to handpick Joseph Robinette Biden’s entire cabinet.

How the fuck does that happen? Well, Hans Nichols and Mike Allen, writing in GOP Senate wins wreak havoc on Biden transition plans for Axios, lede:

Republicans’ likely hold on the Senate is forcing Joe Biden’s transition team to consider limiting its prospective Cabinet nominees to those who Mitch McConnell can live with, according to people familiar with the matter.

So, Bernie Sanders at Labor? Elizabeth Ann Warren at Treasury? Any, even marginal, progressive anywhere near The White House? When pigs join the Air Force. In fact, in order to get anyone confirmed, Biden will have to name people so far to the right of the Pro-War Pro-Business Party’s left wing as to be all but indistinguishable from the party’s right wing (aka Republican).

Too many progressives held their noses and allowed the PWPB faithful to put William Jefferson Clinton 3.0 on the ticket.

This is what we get.

We have two years to replace the failed Democratic Party with a Progressive People’s Party to begin the process of taking the Senate in 2022 and the White House in 2024. I don’t know how the fuck we do that, but we have to do our damnedest to find our way.

Bonus No. 1: The Idiot Defense System.

Bonus No. 2: Ted Rall—Next: a Recount Battle from Hell, Then the 12th Amendment?

Bonus No. 3: Becoming A Better Writer.

From my email in box this evening:

Obviously, we did not get the outcome we were hoping for last night.

But that is only part of the story for Ohio’s 16th Congressional District. We knew, from the start, that this was an uphill battle. We knew it was a longshot. But this race, this candidacy, and the movement it became thanks to the tens of thousands of supporters across this district and this state, was a statement unto itself.

Our message is simple and has been at the core of this campaign all along: that the issues that matter to Ohioans deserve to be fought for, no matter the lines that make this district. We believe that you deserve an advocate for affordable and accessible healthcare and a living wage. That you deserve an advocate willing to invest in our future. That you deserve a Representative who cares. [Emphasis mine, JH]

But we cannot ignore the ugly truth here. In Ohio, there are sixteen Congressional Districts, and in Ohio, sixteen incumbents won. Just as designed by the bought-and-paid-for partisan-drawn districts, and to the dismay of every single Ohioan who cares for real representation, whether that is in Columbus or DC. Whether you are a Democrat or a Republican, these corruptly-drawn districts rob you of your voice. In what world should my hometown, Elyria, be in the same district as Wapokaneta? In what world does it make sense that North Olmsted is in the same district as Wooster? How is it that Toledo and Brook Park are in the same Congressional District?

Tough races, like here in OH16, require a candidate to pour their heart and soul for a slim chance at victory. Many candidates don’t want to try again after a loss on election day. And who can blame them? I can tell you from first-hand experience how difficult running a campaign is, no matter the odds.

All this is to say: I am not going to give up on Ohio. I am going to keep fighting for our families here in the 16th and across the state. I am going to do whatever I can to make sure some of our incredible candidates stay in the game, and to make it clear: we do not need to settle for regular scandals coming out of Columbus. We do not need to settle with Representatives who spend their time brown-nosing instead of fighting for their constituents. We can do better. And if I have anything to do with it, we will.

I want to close by again thanking my volunteers, my supporters, my friends and family, and especially my girlfriend, Cathy Belt, who has been unbelievably supportive through all of this. We had our voices heard. We will keep having our voices heard.

What comes next will be just as difficult as this campaign, if not more so. I’m ready to take it on. Are you?

In solidarity and in the hopes of a brighter tomorrow for everyone in Ohio,

Aaron Paul Godfrey

I’m know Aaron for two years now and I believe him to be a good man whose progressive message was abandoned by the left wing of the Pro-War Pro-Business Party. If, as it now appears more than likely, Joseph Robinette Biden becomes our 46th president, he will be an empty suit for at least the next two years.

I have no doubt that Senate Majority Leader Addison Mitchel McConnell has already told his sycophants and corporate masters—as he did for President Barack Hussein Obama in 2010—The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama Biden to be a one-term president. We are looking at least two—and four if we do not take back the senate—years of gridlock in Washington.

There is only one solution and Joe Lightning Little nailed the message.

I admire, and have been noted for (thank you Eric) doggedness. But no one in my personal circle deserves that honorific more than Tim Russo who embraces a level worthy of Eugene Victor Debs in his campaign to elevate the men of First Minnesota to their rightful place in possibly the three most important days in our nation’s history 1-3 July 1863.

In addition to the monumental task of writing a book about the First Minnesota—see Ghosts Of Plum Run on the right—Tim has taken on the bureaucracy of the lords of history in charge of deciding how Americans learn about those three days of Gettysburg and what truths can and cannot be discussed. His latest target is newly ensconced American Battlefield Trust President David C. Duncan. Tim, in American Battlefield Trust erases 19th Maine, 82nd NY, 15th MA at Gettysburg, writes:

…Duncan, has had plenty of time since being announced president September 1 and taking charge October 1 to fix the Trust’s maps of Gettysburg’s second day, July 2, 1863. In fact, Duncan has had 20 years to produce any Trust map depicting the Union defense of Cemetery Ridge July 2. Sadly, fixing the Trust’s maps in this way is the very last thing Duncan wants to do.

In Duncan’s 20 years at the Trust he rose to head of “development” which always means “the cash”. Thus, Duncan surely knows that juicy Lost Cause cash stops flowing if Cemetery Ridge stops being the Lost Cause racket he has helped perpetuate. Duncan, and the Trust, simply cannot afford for Cemetery Ridge to no longer be known for Pickett’s Charge, and instead be known as the ground on which the First Minnesota literally saved the existence of America. It is no surprise then, that a year after “updating” their map to haphazardly plop new arrows onto it, the American Battlefield Trust still has no map depicting the 19th Maine, 82nd New York, and 15th Massachusetts on July 2, 1863.

While journalist get to write the first rough draft of History, William Cuthbert Faulkner was right, there is never a final draft.

Bonus No. 1: Ted Rall—There’s Got To Be a Morning After.

Bonus No. 2: What I’m reading this morning while I follow the count…

Bonus No. 3: There will be no such transfer in my damn house…!

Bonus No. 4: And for further reading—Hold The Line: A Guide To Defending Democracy.

Bonus No. 1: Election 2020 Minus 3 1Days: This Race Is Much Closer Than It Looks.

Bonus No. 1: In 1974, Sean Connery was Zed.

Bonus No. 1: Glenn Greenwald RESPONDS: Why I Left The Intercept Over Censorship.

Last week, in his tease for the Sacha Baron Cohen film Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, Stephen Colbert promised The clip. Sadly, that didn’t happen, but no matter how many takedowns Amazon may demand, the clip is online and will never go away.

Bonus No. 1: Trump tower of terror.

Bonus No. 2: WASP [Karenesque] Mom Tries To Vote

There’s a certain rot in our community that needs exposure of a wider extent than I can give it.

It needs the reporters of the Plain Dealer. They should demand that they be allowed to REPORT about what is important. Not press releases submitted by promoters.

That goes for television news, too. There’s entirely too much fluff that gets offered us as NEWS. It ain’t. It’s promo time and again.

So I’m offering as a primer or push something I wrote in 2009 that details the substance totally lacking in what purports to be News we Need.

It has the kind of detail that takes a bit of work but reveals the truth that’s so often missing from reporting.

Take a Look Back to 22 July 2009: HOW MUCH DOES CLEVELAND LOSE TO ABATEMENTS?

Civic corruption comes in many forms.

We have been hearing a lot about corruption these days. However, the focus is very narrow. Unnecessarily so.

The Plain Dealer simply ignores the corruption that makes today’s hyper County sleaze activity look minor league. Even little league. We”re going to talk about multi-million dollar corruption. Nothing petty. And all legal.

The fact is that the PD actually promotes this BIG kind of corruption. It’s their kind of corruption. They push for it editorially. Always have; always will.

I”ll show you how it works.

We”re talking about tax abatements. You will read about a number of cases in which huge amounts of money have been given to very special people. Very special Rich people.

Most of the abatements are for 20 years or are tax exempted properties, meaning they will never ever pay any taxes. These cases represent large abated properties. They are only a small number of abatements given since 1977 when the program began in Ohio.

Yet over the years they will cost HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS of lost tax dollars.

The lost revenue ordinarily would go to four levels of government. Presently, property tax revenue is shared by the following entities with the percentage of the total in parenthesis: Cleveland schools (55.13 percent rounded), Cuyahoga County (21.24 percent), City of Cleveland (15.68 percent) and Cleveland libraries (7.96 percent).

Rather than guard the public’s resources, slated for the common good, city and county officials—typically backed by the Plain Dealer’s editorials and lack of critical coverage—cater to the self-interests of Cleveland’s Establishment. Their actions have and are shameful.

I requested information from Joann Jackson of the County Auditor’s office about how much abatements cost us. I limited the search to a few big properties.

Here’s what I found in examining certain property tax revenue for the last two years:

BROWNS STADIUM

The amount paid to Cuyahoga County this year and last year for property taxes on the Browns Stadium: ZERO.

Browns Stadium should have paid property taxes of $8,081,230 this year and $7,973,804 last year on the physical structure alone. That’s $16,055,034 over the two most recent years. Total value of the Browns stadium, including land, is slightly more than $300 million (Market value with taxes on 35 percent of that figure.)

That is a gift of $16 million in ONLY the last two years to the billionaire Lerner family, owners and users of the Browns. (This property will NEVER pay a penny in taxes on the structure as it has been tax exempted by state law, passed under pressure of local politicians – mainly Commissioner Tim Hagan and former Mayor Michael White – and the Plain Dealer.)

I reported recently that the city also has paid $102.8 million on stadium bonds, owes $160.3 million more in payments due and has to come up with $44.55 million in capital improvements now and in future years. The State of Ohio chipped in $37 million more; RTA $3 million; City Water Dept. $2 million; Northeast Sewer District $2.24 million; and the city’s water pollution control division another $500,000. Lerner’s annual rent: $250,000 with no increase over 30 years. How hard is it to become a multi-millionaire?

Having given so much, why burden the Lerner family with having to pay property taxes. Shameful to ask that. The city, by the way, also pays the property taxes due on the land beneath the stadium. This year that bill was $452,724.

QUICKEN ARENA

The amount paid to Cuyahoga County in property taxes this year and last year for Quicken Arena: ZERO.

Quicken (formerly Gund) Arena should have paid property taxes of $3,816,609 this year and $3,765,873 last year. That’s $7,582,482 over the two most recent years. Total value of the Quicken Arena, including land, is slightly more than $50 million.

This is a gift of some $7.5 million to the billionaire Dan Gilbert, Cavs owner. (This property also will NEVER pay taxes on the structure because of the actions of Hagan and White in passing legislation to EXEMPT forever all new stadia and arenas in Ohio.)

Citizens of Cuyahoga County built the arena for some $157 million but Gilbert controls it. Having given him the arena, why should we even suggest that he pay property taxes. Let’s not get greedy, citizens.

PROGRESSIVE FIELD & GATEWAY GARAGE

The amount paid to Cuyahoga County in property taxes this year and last year for Progressive Field: ZERO.

Progressive Field (formerly Jacobs Field) should have paid property taxes of $4,882,764 this year and $4,817,856 last year. That’s $9,700,620 over the two most recent years. Total value of the baseball stadium, including land, is slightly more than $69 million. (This property will NEVER pay taxes on the structure because state legislation pushed by Hagan, White and the Plain Dealer was passed to EXEMPT all new sports facilities in Ohio FOREVER.)

The amount paid to Cuyahoga County in property taxes this year and last year for the Gateway Garage: ZERO.

The Gateway Garage, built by the City of Cleveland for the new sports facilities should have paid taxes of $652,963 this year and $644,283 last year. That’s near $1.3 million. The value of the garage is $10.5 million.

This is a gift of some $11 million to the billionaire Dolan family, owners of the Cleveland Indians.

Cuyahoga County citizens paid most of the some $180 million for the stadium but the Dolan family controls it. Why bother to ask them to pay property taxes? It might be seen as pushy.

We also note that the citizens of Cleveland alone built two parking facilities, one tax abated, at a cost of more than $40 million.

Are you seeing a pattern here?

KEY CENTER, MARRIOT HOTEL & GARAGE

The amount of property taxes paid to Cuyahoga County on Key Center, Cleveland’s tallest office building: ZERO

Key Center, built by multi-millionaire Dick Jacobs, should have paid $5,399,922.84 this year and $5,328,139 last year. That’s more than $10.7 million. Total value of the 57-story Key Center building, including land, is $72.4 million. (This property, in addition to $10-million, zero interest loan, was given a 20-year tax abatement, 100 percent tax abatement by Mayor George Voinovich and Council President George Forbes.)

This was a gift given by Voinovich and Forbes in 1988. Jacobs was yet to get a stadium built for him. The new stadium gave him an advantage to sell it to the Dolans for a pricey $320 million.

Oh, there’s more that Dick got.

The Marriott Hotel, attached to Key Center, should have paid $1,123,027 last year and $1,208,098 the previous year. That’s slightly more than $2.3 million. Total value of the 25-story Marriott Hotel, including land, is $15,594,500. (This property, in addition to another $7.9-million, zero interest loan, was provided a 20-year, 100 percent tax abatement by Voinovich and Forbes.)

As if that were not enough, Voinovich and Forbes gave Jacobs the ability to build a parking garage beneath the city’s Mall A, which is located in front of the Marriott Hotel. It’s called Memorial Park Garage.

Memorial Park Garage should have paid property taxes of $230,835 this year and $227,767 in property taxes last year. That’s some $457,000. Total value of the parking garage under Mall A is $5.2 million. (Voinovich and Forbes cancelled a contract with a top bidder to deliver the parking garage contract to Jacobs for 65 years. Jacobs hired Forbes” favorite parking lot operator for the facility; Voinovich’s old law firm, Calfee & Halter, made $443,000 (paid by Jacobs) representing the city in the law suit resulting from the city’s action to give the deal to Jacobs. Jacobs offered to increase parking places from 600 to 1,200 but it was cut to 900 in the final plan. Revenue payments also were reduced down under the Jacobs plan.)

Forbes and Voinovich didn”t stop there. They were even more eager to fill Jacobs’s pockets.

The two – Voinovich and Forbes – offered the same sweet deal as Key Center to Jacobs for the west side of Public Square. It was to be another office building and hotel. You may notice that the west side of Public Square – which in 1989 had working office buildings that Jacobs then knocked down – remains a parking lot. Has been a parking lot since the early 1990s.

Further, other downtown buildings, damaged as tenants moved to Key Center, sought and got tax reductions. Squire, Sanders & Dempsey, for example, moved into Key Center from the Huntington Building. The law firm wrote the state legislation for tax abatement in the 1970s. (As an example, Jacobs’s E. 9th corner, left vacant for years. He was rescued, however, by the County Commissioners, who bought the complex of buildings for new County offices. It remains vacant, of course.)

The absurdity of these abatements hasn’t penetrated the minds of politicians or editors, however.

WYNDHAM HOTEL

The amount paid in property taxes on the luxury Wyndham Hotel for this year and last year: ZERO.

The Wyndham Hotel, built public subsidy upon public subsidy, should have paid property taxes of $339,500 this year and $334,987 last year. That’s some $674,000 over the two most recent years. Total value for tax purposes of the 200-plus luxury hotel at Playhouse Square is $4.7 million, including land. That’s very low.-

The luxury Wyndham was soaked with government subsidies in addition to the tax abatement, including a $5.5 million zero interest loan; a low interest state loan of $4 million; a tax incremental financing deal worth several million dollars over 20 years; the city helped purchase part of the land for $2 million then invest $1.5 million to improve the site and sold it to Playhouse Square Foundation for less than $1 million. The subsidies came to some $136,000 per room. “Credit” this rotten deal to Mayor White and then Council President Jay Westbrook.

RITZ-CARLTON HOTEL

The amount paid in property taxes this year and last year for the luxury Ritz-Carlton: ZERO.

The Ritz-Carlton, a luxury hotel at Tower City, should have paid a total of $1,718,020 for this year and the last year on four parcels tax abated for Sam Miller interests. The market value of the properties is $31.1 million.

This amounts to a generous gift of $1.7 million to the multi-millionaire Miller. The hotel piggybacked on the Marriott for an abatement. The city also gave a $7.9 million, zero interest loan for the 207-room hotel built into Tower City. Why not help a multi-millionaire if you can?

That covers only 9 tax abatement projects in the city of Cleveland. There are many, many more. Admittedly, these are among the largest.

In any case, the total cost of these abatements for ONLY TWO YEARS totals some $48 million in lost tax revenue. Two years remember. Tax revenue sliced away from Cuyahoga County’s tax collections. Taxes that you—if you are a property tax payer in Cuyahoga County (or even a renter for that matter)—have to make up.

You won”t see this on the front page of the Plain Dealer. They avoid such information as if it were the plague. Indeed, the paper and its editors will fight to keep the public from being informed about this issue. In future, I”ll try to show how they have done this and flesh out the issue of abatements.

There someday will be more buildings built in downtown Cleveland. The issue of tax abatement will arise again. So I hope you will print out this information and keep it handy.

Of course, developers today are getting tax abatements on new housing development, especially in downtown Cleveland. It helps to offer a tax abatement to buyers. You can get a better price if you tell a prospect that they will be saving thousands of dollars by not paying taxes.

The wealthy love NOT PAYING TAXES. It’s a major ingredient of wealth. Believe it.