COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — On Wednesday, state lawmakers passed the two-year state operating budget worth $60 billion, which included a way to give the state a little more money to play with, and the Cleveland Browns some financial help building a new stadium.
Lawmakers wanted some sort of consistent revenue fund for current and future requests from other teams. Gov. Mike DeWine first suggested doubling the state’s online sports gambling tax. Republicans quickly rejected that idea.
Instead, Ohio lawmakers are hoping to tap into the state’s unclaimed funds. An unclaimed fund is money that someone probably doesn’t even know they have, being held by the state. It could be anything from a check never cashed to an account forgotten. People can claim their funds at any time through an official state website.
Right now, that fund houses $3.7 billion. Now, lawmakers want to capitalize on what they call idle money and use it for a new “Ohio Cultural and Sports Facility” fund. This all stemmed from the Cleveland Browns asking the state for $600 million to build a new stadium.
Under this budget, $1 billion will be put into the fund: $600 million for the Cleveland Browns and $400 million to be used on other projects.
“There are at least a dozen times in the past when the state has taken money from the unclaimed funds and in some cases emergency situations,” Ohio Senate Finance Chair Jerry Cirino (R-Kirtland) said. “So, this is not the first time and we didn’t recall any challenges to those occasions when that money was used.”
“We pulled levers that we pulled in the Great Recession to keep our budget stable, to make sure we didn’t have massive layoffs, to make sure that our schools remained open and kids could get educated. That is how dire it was, that is the last time we raided unclaimed funds in this magnitude,” Ohio House Finance Ranking Member Bride Rose Sweeney (D-Westlake) said.
The proposal, if signed into law by DeWine, is already facing a lawsuit. DannLaw plans to file class action lawsuit challenging the provision if it does take effect.
“The Ohio Supreme Court has been crystal clear: unclaimed funds are not state property — it’s private property,” attorney and former state representative Jeffrey Crossman said. “This case is about protecting Ohioans’ constitutional rights and stopping the legislature from liquidating private property and turning it into a billionaire’s building fund. Ohioans shouldn’t have to race the clock to reclaim what’s already theirs.”
The governor must enact the budget by July 1, but he does have the ability to line item veto any provision within the spending bill.
