The Cleve­land-Cuya­hoga Coun­ty Port Author­i­ty kicked off its tax levy renew­al cam­paign on Thurs­day, Sept. 7, with a news con­fer­ence along the east bank of the Cuya­hoga Riv­er at the Arcelor Mit­tal steel mill.

The Great Lakes Tow­ing Com­pa­ny and Great Lakes Ship­yard sup­port the Port of Cleve­land because it is cru­cial to keep­ing the econ­o­my of Cuya­hoga Coun­ty afloat:

• Jobs for North­east Ohio
  • The Port of Cleve­land sup­ports near­ly 18,000 jobs
  • The Cleve­land-Cuya­hoga Coun­ty Port Author­i­ty has also con­nect­ed bil­lions of dol­lars of indis­pens­able pri­vate cap­i­tal with impor­tant devel­op­ment projects in our coun­ty that have involved more than 16,000 jobs
• Eco­nom­ic Suc­cess for Our Region
  • $1.8 bil­lion in eco­nom­ic activity
  • More than $100 mil­lion in state and local gov­ern­ment rev­enue depend on car­go trans­porta­tion through Cleve­land Harbor
• Sup­port for Our Local Companies
  • The Port brings in mate­ri­als at low costs
  • Helps local com­pa­nies like Ford Motor Com­pa­ny and Lin­coln Elec­tric be more com­pet­i­tive against over­seas industries

The cur­rent 0.13-mill Port Author­i­ty levy expires at the end of 2017. The qua­si-pub­lic agency is ask­ing for the same amount with this bal­lot issue. If passed, the levy will raise about $3.1 mil­lion a year and cost a home­own­er about $3.45 for every $100,000 of home valuation.

The levy pro­vides about one-third of the Port Author­i­ty’s annu­al bud­get. The remain­der comes from rev­enue gen­er­at­ed from the Port of Cleve­land’s Lake Erie docks and fees from its devel­op­ment finance operation.

The kick­off loca­tion was cho­sen to high­light the impor­tance of the Port Author­i­ty’s main­te­nance of the local water­ways to the local econ­o­my. Arcelor Mit­tal vice pres­i­dent and gen­er­al Man­ag­er Michael Madar said the mill, which employs 2,000 peo­ple and has oper­a­tions on both sides of the riv­er, receives 4 mil­lion tons of raw mate­ri­als via the Cuya­hoga ship­ping channel.

The Port Author­i­ty’s work — main­tain­ing the ship­ping chan­nel and the receiv­ing docks along the Lake Erie water­front and the low-cost financ­ing it pro­vides for con­struc­tion projects — said Port Author­i­ty chair­man Dar­rell McNair, “is a tool in the tool kit; it helps us com­pete in the glob­al economy.”

The Port Author­i­ty pro­vid­ed $123 mil­lion in low-cost financ­ing that last month helped attract an Amazon.com Inc. ful­fill­ment cen­ter to North Randall.

The Port Author­i­ty levy will be one of two coun­ty­wide bal­lot issues. In the oth­er, Cuya­hoga Com­mu­ni­ty Col­lege is ask­ing for author­i­ty to issue bonds for cap­i­tal improve­ments, which is esti­mat­ed to cost tax­pay­ers 0.5 mills for each one dol­lar of tax val­u­a­tion, or five cents for each $100 of prop­er­ty tax valuation.

The Port Author­i­ty’s levy mill­age has remained at 0.13 mills since the author­i­ty’s incep­tion in 1968, though it attempt­ed a levy increase in Novem­ber 2012.

That replace­ment levy from 2012 would have increased the rate to 0.67 mills to pay for a pedes­tri­an bridge that would con­nect the Mall to the lake­front, bridg­ing the rail­road tracks and Shore­way and to shore up the bulk­heads along the Cuya­hoga Riv­er that pre­vent ero­sion of the shore. It was defeat­ed 57% to 43%, and the orga­ni­za­tion fol­lowed up in the spring with a suc­cess­ful 0.13-mill renew­al levy.

Source: Crain’s Cleve­land Business