CLEVELAND — Cuyahoga County Council on Thursday approved a 40-year extension of a 0.25% sales tax, which leaders hope will be enough to fund the building of a new county jail in Garfield Heights.
The tax had been due to expire in 2027, but lawmakers instead chose to keep it in place for the foreseeable future with a 6-5 vote. The measure is expected to generate roughly $52 million annually, or upwards of $2 billion through 2067.
The extension comes more than two months after Council voted to buy the land for the proposed jail site for $38 million, a decision that followed contentious debate among members. During that September meeting, a proposal regarding the sales tax was tabled, as opponents wanted the topic to be put on the ballot for Cuyahoga County residents to decide.
While the legislation does not specifically mandate tax revenues be used for construction of the jail, County Executive Chris Ronayne and others are expected to attempt to tie the two together. The project in its current form is expected to cost $750 million.
Cuyahoga County released the following statement following Thursday's vote:
"With County Council's vote today, we have taken another step towards the construction of a new jail and the funding to renovate or build a new facility for the Courts. The new jail facility will improve the services, conditions, and outcomes for those in our custody and reflects our commitment to investing in the safety and well-being of our residents. We look forward to partnering with Council on further efforts to improve our justice system and other core county services."
The saga over the jail dates back to County Executive Armond Budish administration, when multiple state and federal investigations into poor conditions at the current Justice Center facility led to the ouster (and sometimes conviction) of a number of county employees. Two Budish and others, a whole new building was the only way to solve the problems, but a number of proposed sites in Cleveland fell through.
After replacing Budish earlier this year, Ronayne instead began pushing for a location off of Granger Road and Transportation Boulevard in Garfield Heights. The executive said this plot of land would provide for the creation of a more humane jail than the one existing now.
“We have a facility right now that is a tower in the sky that isn’t good for anybody," Ronayne remarked in September. "It's not good for those who are in the jail, it's not good for the workers in the jail. We've needed for a while now to move on from a facility that is more than a half-century old."
But Ronayne plans have been met with some resistance, with critics taking issue with the cost as well as the longer distance from the county center of downtown Cleveland.
"In order to avoid people that are getting out and don't have access to the services they need like shelter, like mental health, like substance abuse treatment ... we should keep it in downtown Cleveland," "No New Jail" group supporter Kareem Hinton said in October.
As of now, a timeline for final approval of the jail project has not been set. You can watch Thursday's meeting in the player below: