Local Government

Down But Not Out in East Cleveland

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Three years after its failed bid at a merger with Cleveland, the poorest city in the state of Ohio ventures a comeback

EAST CLEVELAND — After dropping off a “wet one” (a man high on PCP) at University Hospitals Emergency Room, the ambulance pulled northeast onto Euclid Avenue near Cleveland’s border with East Cleveland. The mirror-finish of The Museum of Contemporary Art reflected trees in full summer bloom as the two East Cleveland firefighters made their way back to their engine house. They cruised by fast-casual restaurants in gleaming new buildings and the Case Western Reserve University Bookstore and the Cleveland Institute of Art building named for George Gund — the mid-20th-century Cleveland banker and philanthropist — before barreling under the concrete and wrought iron railroad bridge that separates Cleveland’s booming University Circle neighborhood from the broken-down streets of East Cleveland. “The scenery sure does change,” said Kyle Soca, the rookie piloting the squad, as the bridge shrank in the rearview mirror and the sidewalks became populated with boarded up storefronts and crumbling apartment buildings. State Sen. Kenny Yuko, who represents both sides of the bridge in the Ohio legislature, stated it more bluntly.

Power lines at twilight
Energy

Hidden Charges: What’s on Your Electric Bill?

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Ohioans’ electric bills charge for more than the cost of making and delivering the electricity. With different utilities serving specific parts of the state, Ohioans’ electric bills and the tariffs that govern them vary. But they all have one thing in common: They’re hard for many people to understand. And the bills don’t clearly detail all charges to consumers. Here’s a guide to what all the small print says — and what it doesn’t say — on a sample bill from June for a residential customer of FirstEnergy’s Illuminating Company.

Electricity

Why Did Utility Bills Go Up As Electricity Prices Went Down?

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A look at how affiliate arrangements, subsidies and riders led to higher electric bills in Ohio — even as power prices declined

In a residential neighborhood south of downtown Cleveland, a decorative lamppost provides a stark illustration of what critics say is an abusive system of surcharges that have created billions of dollars in subsidies for the state’s utilities. The 150-watt light in a tiny residential park is the only thing for which the South Hills Neighborhood Association used electricity in July. Yet the electric bill was nearly $70 — only 38 cents of which was for the actual electricity consumed. The bill for that single lamppost is now nearly 750% higher than it was just 11 years ago. In July 2008, the charge for the same light totaled $8.28, with $2.69 going toward electricity.

Environment
Man pulling off invasive species

Fewer Invasive Species Reach the Great Lakes, but Those Here Continue to Spread

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Scientists, Regulators and Industry Representatives Debate if Ballast Water Treatment is an Option

More than $375 billion in cargo — iron ore, coal, cement, stone, grain and more — has flowed between Great Lakes ports and foreign nations since 1959. That’s when Queen Elizabeth and U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower christened the St. Lawrence Seaway, heralding it as an engineering marvel.  

But that series of locks, dams and channels connecting the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean also carved a pathway for foreign plants and animals to wreak billions of dollars in ecological damage to the lakes. At least 80 invasive species have arrived in the ballast water transatlantic ships take in and discharge for balance. 

The round goby, which came from the Black and Caspian seas in the 1990s, gobbles up food some native fish depend upon. So do European zebra and quagga mussels, which also damage docks and boats and clog pipes and machinery, costing the Great Lakes region an estimated $500 million each year.

entity sales

How Much are you Overpaying in Property Tax?

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Commercial Property Sales Loophole Costs Small Business Owners Thousands

When Palmer Square, LLC recently wanted to sell their apartment building at 4121 Palmer Park Circle East in Columbus, they went through all the usual hoops that most homeowners are familiar with: they executed a purchase contract with the buyer, Manhattan Real Estate Partners, LLC, they ordered an inspection, and they obtained title insurance. 

But selling the property outright would have cost $65,000 in conveyance fee taxes, and annual property tax would bump up an additional $309,000 dollars per year, with the property now valued at the agreed to purchase price of $35.25 million instead of the auditor’s value of $24.5 million. So instead, Palmer Square formed Palmer House Borrower, LLC. That new business received the property at 4121 Palmer Park Circle and its mortgage. Then they technically sold the business, and not the property. Conveyance tax due to Franklin County: $0. 

Palmer Square is one of hundreds of such property deals taking place throughout the state of Ohio every year, and they are legal.

Homepage Top Story

Eye On the Elderly: Ohio Increasingly Relies on Volunteers to Handle Aging Adult Affairs

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Malcolm Tanksley visited Ruby at the nursing home nearly every weekend. The pair didn’t meet until Ruby was in her seventies, but for the last decade of her life, he was the only family she had. “After thirteen years as her guardian, she thought I was really family,” Tanksley said. “She had dementia to the point where she didn’t talk to anyone else, but she always remembered me.”

He recalls taking her to see a fireworks show, playing hundreds of games of bingo and observing her glee when he brought her birthday and Christmas presents. Ruby loved to be pampered--cozy robes and scented lotions were her favorites.

Homepage Featured

How has Ohio Stepped Up Measures to Combat Sexual Violence?

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For one Ohio trafficking victim, the opening of the accredited rape crisis center at the YWCA Dayton last year proved crucial to quelling her inner demons, which lingered long after the physical pain subsided. For years, her abuser raped and beat her daily. She must never tell anyone, he threatened, because it would “open Pandora’s box.” Discussing her ordeal in counseling made her feel like it would open that box of monsters and shadows. Her counselor, however, reminded her that the bottom or Pandora’s box held the light of hope. In her private sessions, he taught her to visualize walking down a hallway and opening doors to seek that light and the letters to spell the word “hope” in each room she imagined.

Seniors

Ohio’s Guardianship Laws Leave Seniors Vulnerable to Abuse

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Ohio has struggled to care for vulnerable seniors, and it’s getting worse. The state’s probate courts are responsible for creating and monitoring guardianships of the frail elderly, balancing freedom and protection. They are already strained. And yet, between 2010 and 2030, the number of Ohioans over 65 is projected to rise by half, from 1.6 million to 2.4 million. Over the next seven years the number of Alzheimer’s patients in the state is projected to rise by 13.6 percent.

anonymous donors

Q&A: Experts Discuss How to Find Undisclosed Campaign Donors

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On Tuesday, a panel of top researchers, policy experts, and legal minds discussed lessons learned from the 2018 election and how groups- both liberal and conservative- have gotten better at hiding the source of campaign messages. (See video below.)

PANEL 1: Following dark money trail through 2020

Michael Beckel, Issue One, Manager of Research, Investigations and Policy AnalysisBio: Michael’s latest project, “Dark Money Illuminated” revealed that 75% of dark money spending since Citizens United came from just 15 dark money groups. Before joining Issue One in March 2017, Michael spent roughly a decade as an award-winning journalist following the money in politics, including stints at the Center for Public Integrity and Center for Responsive Politics. Anna Massoglia, The Center for Responsive Politics, Nonprofits and FARA ResearcherBio: Anna researches foreign influence and dark money in politics for the Center for Responsive Politics, working on the OpenSecrets’ Foreign Lobby Watch project, dark money database and FCC political advertising database. Anna holds a J.D. from the University of the District of Columbia and worked previously at Bloomberg BNA.

Uncategorized

How do the issues affect Ohio voter choices?

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Ahead of the election this week, Eye on Ohio took a quick look at how major issues could sway voters still on the fence. "Even though the election is Tuesday, there are still a lot of undecided voters. We are fairly certain that Democrat Sherrod Brown will win the U.S. Senate race in Ohio, but most of the races (e.g., the governor's race and the down-ballot races) are toss-ups," said Dr. Lauren Copeland, Associate Director of the Community Research Institute at Baldwin Wallace University, who has used survey data in her research since 2009.  "The outcome of the gubernatorial race will hinge on turnout and how late deciders break. If history is any guide, Cordray might be able to ride Brown’s coattails to the finish line because the same party tends to win the subernatorial and the senate races." But Copeland cautioned against accepting polls as the whole picture.