Keep Cleveland Strong supporters await poll results

The Portersharks perform as Issue 7 supporters mingle and wait for poll results Tuesday, May 6, 2014 at AJ Rocco's in Cleveland. (Joshua Gunter/ The Plain Dealer)

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Voters have chosen to extend Cuyahoga County’s sin tax for another 20 years.

The issue passed a 56 percent to 44 percent margin, or by nearly 23,000 votes, according to final but unofficial vote totals reported by the county board of elections.

Sin-tax backers, including Cleveland City Council President Kevin Kelley, began victory speeches around 10:50 p.m. at a gathering for supporters at A.J. Rocco’s, a downtown bar.

“I think our voters have made some great choices with issues that are helping with the momentum that we’re experiencing in our town,” Joe Roman, CEO of the Greater Cleveland Partnership, the local chamber of commerce, said in a telephone interview. “I think the whole campaign was about educating people, and once we educated people they made the right choice.”

“Money matters,” said Peter Pattakos, the leader of the grassroots efforts against the sin tax. “Even despite the vast sum spent by the team owners and the tactics they employed, we’re encouraged that 44 percent of voters recognized that the sin tax is the wrong way to go forward.”

Now that the issue has passed, the matter at hand will be to decide how to distribute the money, estimated to be at least $260 million over 20 years, between the Browns' FirstEnergy Stadium, the Indians' Progressive Field and the Cavs' Quicken Loans Arena.

The teams – and some of their supporters – have said they hope it will be split evenly between the three stadiums. But that decision ultimately rests with county council.

The Cavs and Indians have shared an estimated $135 million worth of fixes -- including $23.9 million for scoreboard-related upgrades -- they are expected to request over the next decade. The Browns, via the city, have requested $23.7 million in sin tax revenue to repair FirstEnergy Stadium over the next 10 years.

The pro-sin tax effort was the beneficiary of an advertising blitz primarily bankrolled by Cleveland’s three professional sports teams. The Browns, Cavs and Indians contributed at least $1.8 million in cash and marketing services to the effort, according to campaign finance reports filed earlier this month.

The commercials emphasized that the extension is not a tax increase, and argued that the stadiums, which are publicly owned, are an important part of downtown Cleveland’s economic vitality.

The campaign also benefited from near-unanimous support from the county’s politicians, as well as its civic and political groups.

A poorly funded but vocal grassroots campaign coalesced in March to oppose the issue.

Although the group reported raising only $6,500, the effort received an unexpected last-minute boost after a second group bought $125,000 worth of TV ads the week before the primary election.

The second group, the Coalition Against Unfair Taxes, appears to have received its financial backing from interests tied to tobacco and alcohol sales.

Both opposition groups say the sin tax is an unnecessary public subsidy of profitable businesses owned by billionaires that employ millionaires. They also pointed to academic studies that question the economic impact of professional sports.

The county's sin tax is assessed at 4.5 cents per pack of cigarettes, 1.5 cents per 12-ounce bottle of beer, 6 cents per 750-milliliter bottle of wine, 32 cents per gallon of mixed beverages, 24 cents per gallon of cider and $3 per gallon of hard liquor.