Update: Ohio Governor Mike DeWine has signed this bill into law, allowing the state to raid $1.7 billion from its $4.8 billion unclaimed property fund. Effective in 2036, the state will automatically seize unclaimed funds after a 10-year period.
DeWine also neutered the state’s Modell law that doesn’t allow sports franchises to leave their respective cities without putting the team up for sale first, and awarded Cuyahoga County sin tax funding to the Browns, despite the county’s objection to the Browns leaving Cleveland.
Here we go, Brook Park Brownies. Now you can disappoint us even more when we miss our flights due to congestion around the airport.
Originally posted on 6/7:
Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam has heavily lobbied the City of Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, and the State of Ohio to kick in $1.2 billion to help build a new stadium for his hapless club. You know, the one that has won just 73 out of 212 regular-season games played by more than 2 dozen quarterbacks under his watch. But hey, at least they won first place for the worst trade in professional sports history!
While most teams are trying to move downtown, the Browns are trying to escape to the suburbs near Cleveland Hopkins Airport. It’s a repeat of a mistake the Cavs made in the 70s, before correcting it by moving back downtown in the 90s.
Haslam has proposed adding taxes onto Cleveland hotel rooms to fund the team leaving the city, to which hotel owners have called foul.
One of the great joys of living in Cleveland is the abundant parking and utter lack of traffic that other cities suffer through, which is why I’ve never missed a flight, despite cutting it way too close at times. But hey, at least the Brook Park Browns can add some more misery to Clevelanders’ lives by ensuring stadium traffic causes them to miss their flights on game days.
The Browns don’t want to stay downtown because they feel like a dome will enable them to charge more for seats. The team can’t build a dome downtown, because it’s in the flight path of Burke Lakefront Airport, an airport that hasn’t seen commercial flights since Ultimate Air Shuttle killed off its flights to Cincinnati during COVID. The airport barely sees any traffic at all (other than the admittedly excellent annual airshow) thanks to 2 other Cuyahoga County airports within a 20 minute drive, but takes up miles of valuable downtown lakefront property. Alas, Cleveland doesn’t have someone with the guts of Mayor Daley, who shut down Chicago’s Miegs Field overnight, to do something productive with the hundreds of acres of waterfront property.
The city of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County are battling the Browns in court to keep the team in Cleveland and the city has cut ties with the Greater Cleveland Partnership, which recently endorsed the team leaving the city limits. That was no surprise given that Jimmy Haslam’s wife, Dee, sits on the Partnership’s Executive Committee.
It appears that Haslem has seemingly bought off enough state legislators to ensure victory, despite the legal challenges and lack of local city or county support. In all likelihood, the team will soon leave the Factory of Sadness behind and will spend billions of dollars to construct a new Factory of Sadness, this time with a roof.
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine wants to pay for it by increasing taxes on sports gambling profits. That seems logical enough, but Haslam is opposed to that plan.
The Ohio House wants to pay for it by selling bonds that our kids and grandkids will pay off for several decades to come, which is totally worth it for the 8 days a year it will be used. Hilariously, the current Browns stadium didn’t even last for 30 years, while the Guardians and Cavs renovated their parks and will continue playing in them for decades to come.
And now, the Ohio Senate announced it wants to raid the state’s unclaimed property funds to pay for the stadium.
Those are funds that the state holds onto when an account goes dormant with a credit balance. States hold over $70 billion of these funds, but taking from them to pay for a stadium is a new one.
OK, so there’s not much I can do about my home state giving out hundreds of millions to billionaires, but it’s a good reminder to check if you have unclaimed property before your state decides to redirect your funds to its preferred pet project!
Missing Money helps you search for unclaimed funds across most states, free of charge. I found several small accounts that I need to claim, along with relatives’ accounts as well.
You can also search directly on state sites to get back unclaimed funds:
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- District of Columbia
- Florida
- Georgia
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Washington
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
- Wyoming
Did you locate any unclaimed funds for you or your family?
Leave a Reply
20 Comments On "[Now Signed Into Law] Ohio Will Raid Missing Money Fund To Pay For Browns Stadium Handout, Don’t Forget To Search For Your Unclaimed Funds!"
All opinions expressed below are user generated and the opinions aren’t provided, reviewed or endorsed by any advertiser or DansDeals.
Wicked sharp!
Ben Shapiro vibes
Haha, I may have gotten carried away with this rant, but it was fun to write!
Love it
Expecting a check for $47.81 in the next 1-2 weeks from Washington State!
I couldn’t help but search “dans deals” Boom!! I got a hit. Dan you owe me Ungers doughnut!!
Donut not a coconut bar or Russian Tea Biscuit. Granted Lax and Mandel made them better than UNgers
I guess corruption isn’t limited to the coasts.
Despite all the recent winning, the Chiefs’ billionaire owner is struggling to garner tax-payer support for a new stadium. Next-level chutzpah for Browns ownership to think Cleveland tax-payer’s would tolerate it.
Fan-bases need to start calling the bluff of greedy owners. In the digital world, who cares if your team moves to Vegas?
Burke is under 2 miles long–but agree with the entire post.
I have $201 coming IYH to me.
Was actually like $214 with all the interest accrued!
I live in Ohio and used your link and it found $26! Better than nothing, and I wouldn’t have known about it and would have lost out when it got raided! Thank you.
Dan, Please do not give Chicago’s Mayor Daley any credit for anything. He ripped up miegs field in 2001 as a response to 9/11 and the city still hasn’t done ANYTHING meaningful with the site.
He was a bully who sold off our parking meters costing the city billions of dollars in revenue, privatized the skyway and many other stupid ideas, he only made the city worse. Be careful what you wish for.
Perhaps, but a downtown domed Browns stadium on that land makes more sense than having a dormant lakefront airport and a domed Browns stadium next to CLE.
My understanding is that the $600 mil earmarked for the stadium from the unclaimed funds must be paid back by tax revenue and the team owner must put 50 mil in escrow as a guarantee. Seems inaccurate to imply that the unclaimed funds is being taken away for good.
Second, do you not think it is reasonable to put a time limit to how long the state will hold funds? Must the state hold it forever?
All independent studies show that it will never be paid back from that tax revenue and that the state will need to supplement and pay back interest.
I don’t think the state should be subsidizing stadiums without a public vote, and I certainly don’t think the state should be overruling the home city and county about the team leaving the city and still keeping sin tax money that was voted on for the team being located in Cleveland.
1. Maybe you should put that in your article. Instead of just assuming the independent studies correct, state both sides. And add the fact that 50 mil will be put in escrow as a guarantee. But I guess will have to wait 4 years until they evaluate if the tax revenue is in fact paying back the fund.
2. I agree, I do not like corporate welfare full stop. But this corporate welfare-ish as it must be repaid, which I still do not agree with.
3. Your article assumes that maintaining unclaimed funds indefinitely is the only reasonable thing to do. I don’t see why it is unreasonable to put a limit to how long the state will hold the funds for, it is essentially a statute of limitations for making an unclaimed funds claim. Statutes of limitations are frequent throughout the law.
Why should the state get it? These are funds from mostly private corporations (banks and others) that are owed, to individuals or other corps. If they are never claimed why cant the bank or whoever has the money just keep it?
The money is held by the State, not the bank/corporations.
Be sure to look in states besides the one you live in! I have only ever lived in NY but have unclaimed funds in NJ and CA!
I have $0.37 in unclaimed funds. Sounds like the rich guy needs it more than I do so he can have it. From his stealing gas credits from truck drivers to stealing from the public only this time he has help from the politicians. Never enough.