State lawmakers will likely be asked by the owners of the Cleveland Browns to help fund part of a $2.4 billion domed stadium and a billion dollars in hotels, housing and other development in Brook Park.
The request could come in Gov. Mike DeWine’s budget, due out by the first week of February. But leaders of the legislature have questions.
The funding could come from state-backed bonds, rather than an allocation of state funds. Senate President Rob McColley (R-Napoleon) said he wants whatever is offered to be repaid.
"We don't have a final proposal in hand, so I can't really tell you whether I'm in favor of it or not. I do think it's something that we would look to see what the proposal looks like. We would look to see if the governor's going to buy into something like that," McColley said. “I'm not in favor of something that would just simply be a handout. There would have to be an ability to be paid back.”
Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio (D-Lakewood) said lawmakers need to take a position on this issue, because they should expect other teams to come forward too.
"The Browns have reached out to everyone, in one way or another. We saw some preliminary plans," Antonio said. "But right behind the Browns are the Bengals. And right behind the Bengals will somebody else. So the legislature is going to have to figure out where we stand on these kinds of requests."
Antonio said the state shouldn’t get involved with projects that are not supported by local governments, adding that she stands with city officials on the team’s plan to relocate to Brook Park.
“The only place the Cleveland Browns should be playing is in Cleveland. If they move somewhere else, okay, but they're not the Cleveland Browns anymore," Antonio said.
Speaker Matt Huffman (R-Lima) isn’t ruling it out – saying he understands the team may want state-backed bonds to help finance a multi-billion dollar development.
"This is a $4 billion development in the state of Ohio. I think $1.2 billion of that is for a football stadium, but there are transportation parts to it, housing parts to it," Huffman said. "And what they're asking for is some of that to be paid for with bonds, bonds that would ultimately, the suggestion - and it usually is with these things - is that the taxes recouped will pay the public's cost for the bonds. But in this case, the organization is actually guaranteeing that that will happen, which that never happens in these cases. So, we'll just have to see what the final product is. But I know they've been working for some time."
There's been no response so far from a request for comment from the Cleveland Browns.
