A potential tax on Summit County cigarettes that would fund local arts and cultural programming took another major step forward this week after authority to levy it was approved as part of Ohio’s operating budget.
The legislation next heads to Gov. Mike DeWine for his signature.
As Signal Akron reported in April, a provision added into the vast House Bill 96 by state representatives opened the door to Summit County joining Cuyahoga County as the only Ohio jurisdictions allowed to put the cigarette tax for a regional arts district before voters.
After the hotly debated HB 96 evolved and passed through the legislature, state lawmakers kept Summit County’s eligibility and expanded it to Franklin and Hamilton counties. For more than two decades, Cuyahoga County has been the only jurisdiction allowed to consider such a tax, with voters finally approving it in 2006. Grantmaking started in 2007, raising more than $260 million. About $257 million (95%) in local grants have been made to 500 nonprofits since then.
Expanding the pie of public investment in the arts
“You can’t really dispute that [the cigarette tax] has been revolutionary for the arts and culture landscape in Cuyahoga County,” CreativeOhio Executive Director Sarah Sisser told Signal Akron in April when the provision including Summit County was added. Her Columbus-based group advocates for the creative industry in Ohio. The legislation is “an important first step to being able to open the door to the conversation” in Summit County.
The passage of HB 96 comes amid significant cuts by the Trump administration to the National Endowment for the Arts and other programs that fund local arts programming throughout the country.
“As the state advocacy body, we are interested in any opportunity to expand that pie of public investment in arts and culture, and local funding options are one leg of that stool,” Sisser said of House Bill 96.
Nicole Mullet, executive director of ArtsNow, a nonprofit that advocates for arts and culture in Summit County, previously said the “regional tool to support arts and culture could be invaluable” to the county, but emphasized the importance of local collaboration before any proposal is put in front of voters, which could be several years down the road.
The passage of HB 96 doesn’t create the cigarette tax in Summit County, it only gives county officials the legal ability to place a levy on the ballot. Whether it gets placed on the ballot, what the proposed tax rate will be and the funding distribution mechanism used would still need to be determined.
There would be a “multi-year conversation around if and when a campaign would happen and how that might look in Summit County,” Mullet said in April. “We’re interested in the conversation — we have many partners in the county across many sectors. … When I say it’s early, it’s like early early.”