Multiple tax increases could be headed for Cuyahoga County voters’ ballots over the next year. Although county voters are often friendly to levies, the tax increases could face the political headwinds of rising costs and homes values.
Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority trustees voted Tuesday to ask voters to raise the sales tax in the May 2027 primary to help fund its operations. The hike could be as large as 0.5 percentage points, raising the county sales tax from 8% to 8.5%.
Also on Tuesday, Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne proposed seeking a property tax increase in November for health and human services.
The Cuyahoga County Board of Developmental Disabilities is also seeking a tax increase to fund its operation, most likely on the November ballot.
Multiple amendments to the county’s charter — including one restoring the sheriff to an elected office — could land on the November ballot, too.
Here’s a rundown of what could be on voters’ ballots in the next 12 months.
RTA has long survived on a 1% countywide sales tax to fund its bus and train network throughout Greater Cleveland. Now the transit agency’s board is considering adding as much as another 0.5 percentage points to the sales tax to stave off more cuts in service.
If it were to pass in that amount, 1.5% of what shoppers pay on taxable goods and services in the county would support RTA’s bus and train system.
The transit agency has its struggles. Ridership still lags pre-pandemic levels. The agency is planning a 3% service reduction in August. RTA expects to take $28 million from its reserves next year to keep its general fund in the black. By 2029, the general fund is expected to go into the red.
RTA’s trustees considered going to the ballot in November, but decided to wait until May. That will give them more time to convince voters, businesses and community leaders to get behind the sales tax hike.
“We understand the idea that everyone is tax weary. We get that. We all pay them. We understand it,” CEO India Birdsong-Terry said at Tuesday’s board meeting. “But I do think we have to be able to propose and put the question to the community and really dispel the misnomer that transportation is free.”
The board will decide by Sept. 22 whether to seek the full 0.5 percentage point increase or a smaller amount.
RTA expects to bring in $286 million from its 1% sales tax next year, which accounts for most of the agency’s general revenue. Based on that estimate, a 0.5-point increase would add $143 million for transit annually.
The county executive would like to ask voters to renew and increase one of the county’s two levies for health and human services.
The renewal of the 4.7-mill levy and a 2.5-mill increase would bring in almost $111 million more for county safety net programs. It would cost about $88 a year per $100,000 of home valuation, Health and Human Services Director David Merriman told council on Tuesday.
Ronayne’s administration pitched the levy as a way to counteract federal cuts, such as to the SNAP food aid program.
Without action on a levy, the county will need to make cuts across multiple programs — and shift some spending to other revenue streams — to maintain its reserve for health and human services, Merriman said.
He presented a few different financial scenarios. Even with the deepest proposed cuts, by the end of next year the reserve is expected to go below $30 million, the minimum level set by county code, he said.
“These are very dramatic cuts,” Merriman said. “I think these are the deepest cuts I’ve seen in my experience, and it’s something we do out of necessity.”
A levy would help the county reverse a $4 million cut to the Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services Board, he said. The county could also spend more on food assistance, senior services, children and family services, the juvenile court and other expenses, Merriman said.
Council Member Sunny Simon pushed for the county to wait to seek the tax increase. Originally, the county had planned to put the levy on the ballot in 2028, Merriman said.
Simon pointed out that the health and human services measure would compete with the developmental disabilities levy in November. Plus, federal policy could change after the 2026 midterms, she said.
“I don’t see much planning here,” she said. “I see we’re jumping into something. I’ve never seen this before, that we’re asked to put something on the ballot without any time to think about it, to adjust, to take action, in this knee-jerk way.”
At Tuesday evening’s council meeting, Ronayne pressed his case for a tax increase. He argued that the state and federal government had left the county to shoulder more of the burden of maintaining the safety net.
“This is a very difficult conversation with our community that, frankly, our community deserves better by the federal and state government,” he said. “They deserve better partners than they have right now. But what they have is us.”
Council did not vote Tuesday to place the measure on the ballot. The deadline to do so is Aug. 5.
The county’s developmental disabilities services board is asking homeowners to approve to pay more in property taxes through a new levy to help the agency care for roughly 15,000 children and adults.
The 2.25-mill levy would raise an estimated $94.5 million for the agency, which has a $177 million budget. For the homeowners, that comes out to almost $79 more per $100,000 of property value each year.
A levy passed in 2005 has sustained the agency for the last two decades. About 81% of the proceeds go toward paying caregivers through a program also funded by Medicaid, CEO Amber Gibbs told County Council earlier this year.
Gibbs pointed to two factors driving up program costs in recent years. The Ohio legislature approved a raise for those caregivers, and more families have been signing up in Cuyahoga County.
Council was slated to vote Tuesday to send the levy to the ballot, but postponed the vote until its July 21 meeting.
County Council is weighing six charter amendments, including two competing measures laying out how the sheriff can be hired and fired.
One charter amendment would make the sheriff an elected official again, rather than one appointed by the county executive. That would reverse one of the changes that voters enacted with the 2009 reform of county government, which made the sheriff an appointee.
Another amendment would give the county executive the power to fire the sheriff. Under a 2019 charter amendment, only council can fire the sheriff by supermajority vote.
Here are the other four amendments:
Council plans to take up the proposed amendments again on July 21, Council President Dale Miller said.
More Info