Few would dispute that the people of Northeast Ohio enjoy access to some of the finest arts and cultural organizations, performances and exhibitions in the country, along with a host of educational and participatory opportunities.
From the internationally acclaimed Cleveland Orchestra to the Cleveland Art Museum to Playhouse Square to the Cleveland Institute of Art, through local performing and creative groups, and all the way down to aspiring individual artists working with an easel or a potter’s wheel or a barre in the garage, there is something for everyone. Much of it is free, most of it interesting – all of it an inspiring example of what the human spirit is capable of creating.
And all of it requires encouragement – and financial support – from the community it serves.
To that end, in 2006 an organization called Cuyahoga Arts and Culture worked to put a 10-year cigarette tax on the ballot that would help fund the efforts of local arts non-profit organizations and individuals.
The ballot issue, which cost smokers 1.5 cents a cigarette – 30 cents per pack – drew 56 percent approval from voters that year. And when it was presented for renewal in 2016, voters thunderously affirmed it with 75 percent approval.
Fast forward to today, and the arts community has a problem.
Cigarette smoking has decreased dramatically, which is good news for everyone but CAC, which is faced with trying to fund the ever-increasing needs of the organizations and people it serves with an ever-decreasing stream of revenue. The tax, which at first produced almost $20 million per year, fell to $12.5 million last year and is expected to be even lower in 2024.
So, CAC, with the approval of Cuyahoga County Council, is asking voters next month to approve an increase to 3.5 cents a cigarette – 70 cents a pack – in order to restore much of the revenue it has lost since the tax was first approved.
We hope voters will agree that the work of CAC in helping to support the many artists and arts organizations who depend on this funding is worth the increase, and we strongly urge its passage.
CAC reports that since 2007, it has been able to award 4,000 grants to 486 organizations for a total of $246 million. A look at the CAC website (www.cacgrants.org) reveals a staggering number of organizations helped by these grants.
If voters approve the increase on Nov. 5, officials estimate that it will produce an additional $160 million between 2025 and 2035, bringing the amount it is able to distribute close to the original annual levels.
This request has not been without controversy. Critics have charged that CAC officials and other leaders have not worked hard enough to find other revenue streams, and they question why the funding is all put on the backs of the county’s smokers.
That accusation is misguided, says Cleveland philanthropist and art collector Fred Bidwell, who helped create the Assembly for the Arts, the county’s new nonprofit arts council.
“This idea that we went to sleep on the form of taxation, and we are passively going with the cigarette tax is just wrong,” he told our reporter Steven Litt in June. “We’ve been working like crazy on this for years.”
Bidwell and others outlined the efforts to find other means, going back even before the original vote in 2006. The group tested public reaction to a property tax, which was negative. It also considered and rejected taxing cell phone usage, dry cleaning, car rentals, boat sales and even video rentals.
Since 2015, other taxes explored and rejected have included a dine-in meal tax, alcohol sales, real estate transfers and a second look at the property tax. More recently, the group managed to gain approval from the state legislature to allow expanding the tax to vaping products, but that was later rescinded.
Obviously, another revenue source will eventually have to be found – perhaps from newly legalized marijuana sales – but for now the arts community’s hopes must continue to rest on the cigarette tax.
We recommend that Cuyahoga County voters affirm their support of Northeast Ohio’s many arts organizations and artists by approving this increase on Nov. 5. Early voting has begun.
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