Ohio Office of Budget & Management Agrees: $600M to the Cleveland Browns Stadium is Fiscally Irresponsible for Ohio

COLUMBUS — State Rep. Sean Patrick Brennan (Parma), as an early critic of the inclusion of a $600M bond proposal in the state operating budget to subsidize a new domed stadium for the Cleveland Browns in Brookpark, today feels obligated as a public servant to make sure the citizens of Ohio are fully aware of a new report done by the Ohio Office of Budget and Management (OBM) detailing the financial analysis of the “risky” proposal. 

The OBM report cites various problems with the Haslam Sport’s Groups (HSG) financial and economic methodology and projections, concluding that the proposal could place a huge burden on Ohio’s budget and, ultimately, taxpayers.

“I commend OBM’s Director Kimberly Murnieks for her thorough analysis of the Haslam’s numbers,” said Rep. Brennan. “It proves what I have stated all along: the HSG greatly inflated the increased tax revenues, job creation, and return on investment. This report also proves why the Ohio Statehouse should not be used as the personal bank for billionaires. I remain hopeful that the proposal will be removed, and we can now craft a budget that prioritizes hard working Ohioans.”

In her report, Director Murnieks includes concerns about the changing overall costs HSG has divulged about the various phases of the project, the unprecedented size of the subsidy, unanswered questions, complicated structure of the proposal, the overstated tax revenues and job growth generated by the project by HSG, millions in taxpayer funded future renovations costs for the stadium, and how studies reveal that sports stadiums have a history of not paying off for the communities that invest in them.

The report did not include an analysis of the infrastructure improvements that the project would require, especially given its location next to Cleveland Hopkins International airport.