Cuyahoga County Council to debate what to do with casino tax revenue

CLEVELAND - The debate over what to do with Cuyahoga County’s share of new casino tax revenue will continue Tuesday afternoon.

Council is expected to vote to create a fund in which the money, which is to start flowing to Ohio counties in July, will be deposited.

What that money will go towards though is very much up in the air. County Executive Ed FitzGerald wants to see it used to help support the more than a billion dollars worth of investments that have been made in Downtown Cleveland.

Some council members argue the inner ring suburbs are the ones in desperate need of the money, hit hard by state budget cuts and falling home values.

The county is expected to get $2.3 million from its share of the state's 33 percent tax on gross casino revenue with that number jumping in the years that follow to the $8.5 million to $11 million range.

FitzGerald told council last month that its important not to repeat the mistakes of the past where projects are created than left on their own to succeed or fail.

“If you look at what’s happened downtown before you might have a stadium that happens and then nothing else happens or you have the Flats happen, then nothing else happens," FitzGerald said. "And we’ve got to make sure that this is a whole district that really works for the whole county."