On Monday April 29, the Cuyahoga Arts and Culture board called a special meeting, just 12 days after their annual board meeting, to introduce a resolution calling for Cuyahoga County Council to place an issue on the November 5, 2024 ballot to increase in the cigarette tax that funds the arts levy from 1.5 cents to 3.5 cents per cigarette. The current levy expires in January 2027.
Since the levy took effect in 2007, the annual amount it’s brought in has shrunk to half, from $20 million to about $10 million, as more people have quit smoking. The CAC board and Assembly for Action, the arm of Assembly for the Arts that’s leading the levy replacement campaign, project that the new levy would raise about $160 million over a decade, although they admitted it’s hard to predict the number of people who will give up smoking in that time.
Despite the short time frame to raise money and campaign, Jeremy Johnson from Assembly for the Arts and Jeff Rusnak, the consultant leading the replacement campaign, were optimistic, suggesting that the nonprofit arts groups who get the bulk of the levy money could be promoting it at all their events and shows. Board member Michelle Scott Taylor raised an issue many in the creative community have been talking about: given that most of the money goes to nonprofits to administer the arts, would artists themselves get behind it? There isn’t a clear answer to that.
The resolution passed the vote of 4-0, which included new board member Lenny DiCosimo, who was sworn in at the last meeting, and returning members Taylor, Daniel Blakemore and Karolyn Isenhart. The board was short a member: Nancy Mendez has resigned and is slated to be replaced by former Playhouse Square CEO Gina Vernacci, who was in the room but hasn’t been sworn in yet.
While the meeting wasn’t well attended by the public, unsurprising given that it was announced just last Thursday, the Plain Dealer’s Steven Litt and Michael Gill from CAN Journal were both in attendance, as was Fred Bidwell, who stepped down months ago from leading the arts levy campaign.