CLEVELAND, Ohio --

Cuyahoga County taxpayers still are paying millions of dollars a year for Progressive Field and The Q because of cost overruns and team leases that have failed to generate as much money as originally promised.

This year, the bill to the county amounts to $6.25 million. And with $70 million still owed, taxpayers will remain on the hook until 2023 -- nearly 30 years after the opening of the downtown sports venues.

"The people of Cuyahoga County have paid very dearly for that complex," said City Councilman Mike Polensek, a longtime critic of the complicated financing for the stadium and arena.

In 1990, voters approved a 15-year sin tax on cigarettes, beer and wine to cover half the cost. The rest of the money was to come from the state, local foundations, Cavs' and Indians' rent, leases on luxury seating and the sale of naming rights.

But money was a problem almost from the beginning. Gateway Economic Development Corporation, the nonprofit company formed to oversee construction and serve as landlord, sought a bail out from the county.

The county issued $120 million in bonds in 1992 and 1994, then loaned the proceeds to Gateway. Gateway pledged to pay back the county with leftover construction money and arena revenues.

That never happened.

Tom Chema, who served as Gateway executive director from 1990 to 1995, said in a telephone interview last week that those involved in the planning of the complex had envisioned taxpayers picking up a "modest amount," about $1 million a year.

Show me the money

This month, $9.5 million was due to pay off $120 million in bonds Cuyahoga County issued in 1992 and 1994 to finance Cleveland's downtown basketball arena and baseball stadium, originally called Gund Arena and Jacobs Field and now known as The Q and Progressive Field. Here's where the money came from.

$6 million from the county property and sales taxes.

$2.3 million from taxes tickets for Cavs' games and other events at The Q.

$1.2 million from taxes on hotel rooms.

Source: Cuyahoga County

"Originally the plan was that the rent should have covered the lion's share of the debt service," he said.

Extra sin taxes helped pay the county's bills for years, said Tim Oftermatt, chairman of the five-member Gateway board, which is appointed by Cuyahoga County and the city of Cleveland.

The sin tax raised about $200 million through 2005, when collections were diverted with voter approval to pay off the cost of Cleveland Browns Stadium. Until then, the tax contributed as much as $1 million to the county's payments, Oftermatt said.

Gateway also worked out deals with the city and Positively Cleveland, the region's tourism bureau, to help repay county loans.

Every year, a percentage of admissions taxes on tickets sold at Cavs games and other events at The Q contribute to the bond payments. So does a percentage of hotel taxes, funneled through Positively Cleveland.

This year, taxes on tickets and hotel rooms add up to $3.5 million, said county Fiscal Officer Wade Steen.

But Gateway itself has never contributed, Oftermatt said. There was never any money left over.

Construction costs on the complex ballooned to more than $400 million, $22 million more than budgeted, because of a "fast-track" construction schedule, harsh weather, delays in the arena's design and upgrades to original design specifications.

Generous team leases left Gateway to cover small repairs, even light bulbs, and rent never added up the way officials had projected. The organization grappled with bankruptcy.

"We didn't give them the kitchen sink," then county Commissioner Tim Hagan quipped when the arena lease was signed in 1991. "But they probably got some of the plumbing."

The stadium and arena opened in 1994.

At times, Cavs ticket sales have slumped, cutting into the admission taxes used to pay off county bonds.

"When the Cavs had a higher attendance, more events, more people showing up, there were more dollars," staid Steen, who estimated the smallest annual payment the county has had to make on the bonds at $3 million.

Chema still calls the project a deal for taxpayers, citing it as a catalyst for the influx of residents downtown and the vibrant East 4th Street.

"The project kept the city from falling apart back in the early '90s," he said. "The county and city are so far ahead because we did that."

County taxpayers may be called on to rescue Gateway again in future years, if the Cavs and Indians demand upgrades to their aging facilities. The county could tap as much as $15 million left over from the sin tax when it expires in 2015.

"Right now," Oftermatt said, "Gateway's got no way to pay for it."