In April, the Ohio House approved a state operating budget that includes a $600M bond to support a new Cleveland Browns stadium in Brook Park, a suburb of Cleveland. The bond will cost taxpayers $1 billion over 30 years – all to support the Cleveland Browns, a privately owned, for-profit business that is owned by the wealthy Haslam Sports Group. (Jimmy Haslam’s personal net worth is $8.5 billion, and the Haslam family’s worth overall is $14.4 billion.)

This enormous subsidy of the very wealthy feels like the House Bill 6/FirstEnergy bailout bill all over again! Why should Ohio tax payers hold the bag for a bunch of billionaires with a failing enterprise?

Perhaps the answer has something to do with the money the Haslams have given to Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman: Between Jan. 1, 2024 and March 24, 2025, Huffman received $60,999 from Jimmy and Dee Haslam. Additionally, Jimmy and Dee Haslam jointly contributed $100,000 to the campaign opposing the Citizens Not Politicians/Issue 1 last year.

Ohio has seen this kind of pay-to-play before. Tax payers and rate payers end up holding the bag when politicians accept money from people and entities with something to gain.

Propping up a stadium owned by a billionaire means that Ohio can’t spend on other important priorities. The bonds will be an ongoing resource drain interfering with other spending on essential services and other taxpayer priorities.

Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman said the state can’t afford to fully fund public education and cut the Fair School Funding Plan by two-thirds. But, with persuasion, he thinks we have a spare $600 million to subsidize a private stadium.  

Ohio’s Legislative Service Commission released a report that found Jimmy Haslam’s claims of economic benefit to taxpayers to be “overly optimistic.” Additionally, the stadium’s construction will amount to a roughly $10-11 million loss in tax revenue for the City of Cleveland.

Tell your legislators and Gov. DeWine that you don’t want to pay for the new Browns Stadium!