Unlimited Digital Access - 50% Off - Sale Ends 7/30/24

Did Cuyahoga Arts and Culture try hard enough to find an alternative to raising its cigarette tax?

May 28 2024 Cuyahoga County hearing on Cuyahoga Arts and Culture cigarette tax

Jeremy Johnson, executive director of Assembly for the Arts, spoke at a May 28 meeting of the Cuyahoga County Committee of the Whole about increasing the county's cigarette tax for the arts, distributed through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture, headed by Jill Paulsen, left.Screen shot by Steven Litt, cleveland.com

By

CLEVELAND, Ohio — In November 2015, Cuyahoga County voted by a 75.2% margin to renew the 10-year tax on cigarettes that supports nonprofit arts and cultural organizations from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Playhouse Square and the Cleveland Orchestra.

Arts leaders vowed at the time to come up with a more palatable funding mechanism before the highly regressive tax was scheduled to sunset in early 2027. But come November, a cigarette tax for the arts will be on the ballot again.

Sample HTML block

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.