Two Democratic former state lawmakers are threatening to sue the state if the budget gives money to the Cleveland Browns domed stadium development in Brook Park from unclaimed funds. The spending plan would use $1.7 billion of the total $4.8 billion in unclaimed funds for a sports and cultural facilities fund.
The plan in the final version of House Bill 96 approved early Wednesday morning by the conference committee would offer $600 million in unclaimed funds to the Haslam Sports Group for the Browns stadium project. It would be a loan to be paid back to the state with interest over the next 16 years.
But the idea is unconstitutional, said former state representative Jeffrey Crossman.
“These funds belong to all those hardworking Ohioans across the state with forgotten savings accounts, uncashed checks, overpaid utility bills," Crossman said. "They're not abandoned. That's not state assets. This is private property.”
Crossman and former attorney general Marc Dann said if this provision isn't vetoed by Gov. Mike DeWine and becomes law with the budget, they’ll sue on behalf of people who have made claims.
Both made it clear they are Browns fans, and that "we're not anti-stadium; we're anti-theft," Crossman said.
Dann said protecting individual property rights "is about the most conservative idea that Jeff and I probably have ever had", but be said Republicans in the legislature aren’t seeing that.
“They're saying we don't care that you own this money," Dann said. "We don't care that we've appointed ourselves, the state, as the fiduciary for that money. We're going to just dump that responsibility right now and give it out to somebody who has helped us in our campaigns. That is not a constitutional process.”
Republicans who back the idea say unclaimed funds have been used to plug budget holes and other purposes in the past. Crossman and Dann said they're not sure why there's been no challenge to the use of unclaimed funds to this point.
"This is the most blatant example, and I don't know that any there's been any prior event where that this fund has been raided for the purpose of giving the money to a private entity to to construct a private project," Crossman said.
DeWine had proposed a sports and cultural facilities fund in his initial budget, but he funded it through a doubling of the tax on sports gambling operators. House Republicans stripped that out and created a package of 30-year state-backed bonds for the Browns stadium project. DeWine had hinted at a veto, but never directly said he would strike the plan.
