Opponents of the 5% ticket taxes submitted more than 22,000 signatures to the Columbus city clerk's office Monday morning in their effort to place a charter amendment on the Nov. 5 ballot that would eliminate the taxes and prevent similar future taxes.

Another group submitted petitions to put a clean energy initiative on the Nov. 5 ballot that would use $57 million in city money for incentives for residents to switch to electricity generated by solar or wind power, for example, and other efforts to reduce Columbus' carbon footprint. Mayor Andrew J. Ginther's office already has concerns about the potential cost.

The ticket taxes opponents delivered two boxes of petitions to the clerk office. The office will make copies of the petitions, then forward them to the Franklin County Board of Elections, which will then have 10 days to validate the signatures. Charter amendment proponents said they collected 22,152 signatures. Of those, 11,030 need to be valid.

"The number of signatures indicates the interest in the charter amendment," said Bret Adams, one of the charter-amendment leaders and a local sports agent and owner of the Bluestone, an entertainment venue on East Broad Street, Downtown.

Mike Gonidakis, one of the leaders of the charter amendment drive, claimed it will be the largest grassroots initiative the city has seen.

"We're going to be outspent 10-to-one and we're still going to beat them," Gonidakis said.

Lisa Griffin, who represents Protect Art 4 Columbus, which supports the ticket taxes, said if the board of elections validates enough signatures to place the issues on the ballot, tax supporters will begin raising money to defeat the issue. Protect Art 4 Columbus has 2,000 members, including arts groups, small businesses, neighborhood leaders and individuals.

If the taxes are eliminated, Griffin said arts organizations would be hurt and free and low-cost programs would be jeopardized.

The city began collecting the 5% ticket taxes on July 1, after the the Columbus City Council approved them in December.

One of the taxes applies to tickets of more than $10 for performances and sporting events at venues with more than 400 seats — not including Nationwide Arena. That is expected to raise an estimated $6 million a year for the Greater Columbus Arts Council to fund arts organizations. None of that money will go to Nationwide Arena.

The second tax will be added to tickets for Nationwide Arena events, such as Blue Jackets games and concerts, and is expected to raise an estimated $3 million a year. Of that, $2.4 million will go toward arena improvements, while the remaining $600,000 will go to fixes at arts facilities such as COSI, the Columbus Museum of Art and the King Arts Complex.

Ohio State University and other college and high school athletic events are exempt from the tax. Ohio State has pledged $1 million a year to arts programs.

Richard Albert, the artistic director of the Columbus Civic Theater in Clintonville, was at City Hall Monday morning to support the charter amendment initiative. He was upset that the arts council provided only $13,800 to his theater this year, though the theater asked for $22,000.

"They didn't like our season," Albert said.

Tom Katzenmeyer, the president of the Greater Columbus Arts Council, said it is a competitive grant process with scored applications.

The clerk's office on Monday also received signatures from a group to place a "clean energy" initiative on the November ballot that would authorize $42 million in city money to provide an electricity subsidy program for Columbus residents.

That fund, which the petitioners may want deposited in the New York Green Bank, would pay incentives to customers to switch to solar and wind energy, said John Clarke of ProEnergy Ohio LLC, the group behind the effort.

The initiative would also establish an energy conservation and efficiency fund, a clean energy and education fund, and a minority business enterprise clean energy development fund. Each of those would receive $5 million in city money for a total of $15 million.

That money would go to rebates for energy-efficient appliances, clean-energy education and scholarships, and financial help for minority businesses involved in clean energy, Clarke said.

Robin Davis, spokeswoman for Ginther, said his office has serious concerns about the clean energy initiative.

"The dollar amount would be 6% of the city’s total operating budget, which is more than what we spend annually on Public Health, Public Service or Recreation and Parks. It would also give the petitioners authority to spend taxpayer funds without oversight," Davis said in an email.

ProEnergy Ohio collected signatures for a similar ballot issue in 2017 but never turned them in, Clarke said.

The group earlier pushed for an amendment to the Ohio Constitution to issue $13 billion in bonds to pay for clean-energy initiatives.

The Franklin County Board of Elections has already validated 9,705 signatures to put the clean-energy initiative on the ballot. ProEnergy Ohio needed 8,890 valid signatures.

If the charter amendment initiative on the ticket taxes is also ruled valid, the Columbus City Council will likely take up that as well as the clean energy initiative on either July 22 or July 29 to place them on the November ballot, said Mike Brown, the City Council's chief of staff.

mferench@dispatch.com

@MarkFerenchik