The Wonder of Randy Lerner’s Life
The realization that the school children of Cleveland subsidize the lifestyle of Browns owners Randy Lerner is testimony to our times. Let the wealthy get wealthier. Let the poor get poorer.
It’s one of the most disgusting examples of wealth living off poverty. It goes uncontested by columnists, by politicians, by our sharp news media outlets.
Mayor Jackson, the Plain Dealer and civic leaders as Ronn Richard of the Cleveland Foundation and Joe Roman of the Greater Cleveland Partnership – in other words the servants of the rich – want more attention paid to school teachers and their pay and working privileges (see my last posting here).
Privilege, however, thy name is Lerner.
The Wall Street Journal has been tracking the use of private jet planes and how they are used by the wealthy. Of course, you pay for this too as corporations write the cost off as an expense.
The national business newspaper zeroes in on Randy Lerner’s jet and its travels particularly to the Hamptons. But to more exotic places too, naturally.
“The most frequent flyer is a jet owned by the Cleveland Browns with 390 trips to East Hampton in the four-year period examined by the Journal. Randy Lerner, owner of the national football team, maintains a large estate on Amagansett lane,” says the piece. I got a link to it from a blog on Crain’s Cleveland Business, which reported it uncritically.
The article goes on, “More than 60 of the flights by the Browns-owned plane that landed in East Hampton originated from either New York’s LaGuardia or Teterboro in New Jersey – a pricy way to travel a fairly short distance.”
Hey, nothing’s too good for Randy. I’ve said that before.
I believe – actually, I know – that Randy’s extravagant life is supported by the school children and people of Cleveland because his football team plays in a $300-million plus stadium built by the city on city land, and the city pays the property taxes and pays off the bonds used to finance the stadium. Lerner pays not a penny of these costs. He barely pays rent.
Browns Stadium is owned by the city and rented to Randy’s family for $250,000 a year for each of 30 years. And Randy PAYS NO PROPERTY TAXES.
The stadium property was EXEMPTED from paying taxes thanks to the efforts of former Mayor Michael White and former County Commissioner Tim Hagan. In 1990 White and Hagan – ironically using another private jet provided by the late Pat Parker of Parker-Hannifin – flew to Columbus and successfully got the state legislature to EXEMPT Gateway, a subsidy that was extended to any stadium or arena built in Ohio.
Wasn’t that sweet of Mike and Tim.
The exemption costs taxpayers some $8 million a year in taxes that don’t get paid. More than half the $8 million coming from the Cleveland schools.
Do you see the way the system is rigged?
So thanks, Mayor White and thanks too to Mayor Frank Jackson who does nothing about it. In fact, Jackson allowed the Browns to move its training facilities to Berea so that the city doesn’t even get all the city income tax revenue from hosting the team, its executives and players.
Thus does our world work. Or not work.
As I’ve written before the city rents the stadium – with its 72,000 seats, 145 loge suites and 8,500 club seats – to Lerner for $250,000 a year (never to increase over the 30-year period) and in turn the city pays the property taxes on the land, the only thing at the lakefront stadium not exempted. It cost the city some $400,000 a year. So the city pays more on taxes than it gets in rent. What a deal!
You can see all the jet flights of Lerner, paid for in part by your sin taxes, here.
Randy also is in the news selling a little property in the Hamptons.
Newsday, under the headline, “Rich Cribs: Cleveland Browns owner selling… reports on a proposed house sale by Lerner:
“Don’t think twice. Randy Lerner, who owns the Cleveland Browns, is selling a double parcel family compound in Amagansett Lanes for $6.9 million. The property features a 3,500-square-foot traditional Hamptons–style farm house with fir floors, 3.5 baths and a pool. There’s also is a 1,400-square-foot Shaker-type building originally designed as a library,” the news article reports.
Some of Randy’s neighbors are Paul McCartney, Jerry Seinfeld, Diane Sawyer and Jan Wenner.
You can see the property you helped pay for here.
The latest figures as of May from Cuyahoga County show that you paid since August 2005 $79.2-million in sin taxes for the Browns stadium. Other taxes, including parking, car rental, and others from Cleveland go to help pay bonds on the Browns Stadium.
Lerner pays NONE of this cost.
Is that the way it is supposed to be? Not in my definition of a democracy.
CORRECTION: The move of the Browns practice facility to Berea was NOT allowed by Mayor Frank Jackson. Jackson allowed the movement of the Cavs practice facility to Independence.
Roldo Bartimole celebrates 50 years of news reporting this year. He published and wrote Point of View, a newsletter about Cleveland, for 32 years. He worked for the Plain Dealer and Wall Street Journal in the 1960s.
He was a 2004 Cleveland Journalism Hall of Fame recipient and won the national Joe Callaway Award for Civic Courage in 1991. [Photo by Todd Bartimole.]
Available now: Get the free Cool Cleveland app for your iPhone, iPad & iPod Touch by clicking here.
[Click here to return to the current issue of Cool Cleveland]
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From Cool Cleveland contributor Roy Berko. Berko’s blog, which contains theatre and dance reviews from 2001 through 2011, as well as his consulting and publications information, can be found at 
ROLDO: The Wonder of Randy Lerner’s Life
The realization that the school children of Cleveland subsidize the lifestyle of Browns owners Randy Lerner is testimony to our times. Let the wealthy get wealthier. Let the poor get poorer.
It’s one of the most disgusting examples of wealth living off poverty. It goes uncontested by columnists, by politicians, by our sharp news media outlets.
Mayor Jackson, the Plain Dealer and civic leaders as Ronn Richard of the Cleveland Foundation and Joe Roman of the Greater Cleveland Partnership – in other words the servants of the rich – want more attention paid to school teachers and their pay and working privileges (see my last posting here).
Privilege, however, thy name is Lerner.
The Wall Street Journal has been tracking the use of private jet planes and how they are used by the wealthy. Of course, you pay for this too as corporations write the cost off as an expense.
The national business newspaper zeroes in on Randy Lerner’s jet and its travels particularly to the Hamptons. But to more exotic places too, naturally.
“The most frequent flyer is a jet owned by the Cleveland Browns with 390 trips to East Hampton in the four-year period examined by the Journal. Randy Lerner, owner of the national football team, maintains a large estate on Amagansett lane,” says the piece. I got a link to it from a blog on Crain’s Cleveland Business, which reported it uncritically.
The article goes on, “More than 60 of the flights by the Browns-owned plane that landed in East Hampton originated from either New York’s LaGuardia or Teterboro in New Jersey – a pricy way to travel a fairly short distance.”
Hey, nothing’s too good for Randy. I’ve said that before.
I believe – actually, I know – that Randy’s extravagant life is supported by the school children and people of Cleveland because his football team plays in a $300-million plus stadium built by the city on city land, and the city pays the property taxes and pays off the bonds used to finance the stadium. Lerner pays not a penny of these costs. He barely pays rent.
Browns Stadium is owned by the city and rented to Randy’s family for $250,000 a year for each of 30 years. And Randy PAYS NO PROPERTY TAXES.
The stadium property was EXEMPTED from paying taxes thanks to the efforts of former Mayor Michael White and former County Commissioner Tim Hagan. In 1990 White and Hagan – ironically using another private jet provided by the late Pat Parker of Parker-Hannifin – flew to Columbus and successfully got the state legislature to EXEMPT Gateway, a subsidy that was extended to any stadium or arena built in Ohio.
Wasn’t that sweet of Mike and Tim.
The exemption costs taxpayers some $8 million a year in taxes that don’t get paid. More than half the $8 million coming from the Cleveland schools.
Do you see the way the system is rigged?
So thanks, Mayor White and thanks too to Mayor Frank Jackson who does nothing about it. In fact, Jackson allowed the Browns to move its training facilities to Berea so that the city doesn’t even get all the city income tax revenue from hosting the team, its executives and players.
Thus does our world work. Or not work.
As I’ve written before the city rents the stadium – with its 72,000 seats, 145 loge suites and 8,500 club seats – to Lerner for $250,000 a year (never to increase over the 30-year period) and in turn the city pays the property taxes on the land, the only thing at the lakefront stadium not exempted. It cost the city some $400,000 a year. So the city pays more on taxes than it gets in rent. What a deal!
You can see all the jet flights of Lerner, paid for in part by your sin taxes, here.
Randy also is in the news selling a little property in the Hamptons.
Newsday, under the headline, “Rich Cribs: Cleveland Browns owner selling… reports on a proposed house sale by Lerner:
“Don’t think twice. Randy Lerner, who owns the Cleveland Browns, is selling a double parcel family compound in Amagansett Lanes for $6.9 million. The property features a 3,500-square-foot traditional Hamptons–style farm house with fir floors, 3.5 baths and a pool. There’s also is a 1,400-square-foot Shaker-type building originally designed as a library,” the news article reports.
Some of Randy’s neighbors are Paul McCartney, Jerry Seinfeld, Diane Sawyer and Jan Wenner.
You can see the property you helped pay for here.
The latest figures as of May from Cuyahoga County show that you paid since August 2005 $79.2-million in sin taxes for the Browns stadium. Other taxes, including parking, car rental, and others from Cleveland go to help pay bonds on the Browns Stadium.
Lerner pays NONE of this cost.
Is that the way it is supposed to be? Not in my definition of a democracy.
He was a 2004 Cleveland Journalism Hall of Fame recipient and won the national Joe Callaway Award for Civic Courage in 1991. [Photo by Todd Bartimole.]
Available now: Get the free Cool Cleveland app for your iPhone, iPad & iPod Touch by clicking here.
[Click here to return to the current issue of Cool Cleveland]
WIN $500 by using the free Cool Cleveland app now available for your iPhone, iPad & iPod Touch by clicking here, and for your Android smartphone or tablet by clicking here.
[Click here to return to the current issue of Cool Cleveland]
Posted on Wednesday, June 29th, 2011, in Civic Affairs, Commentary, News, Politics, Roldo Bartimole | No Comments »