This page will bring together the history of the city of Cleveland's tax abatement policy. In summary, the policy has incrementally grown over the years from 5 to 15 years.

So far, city leaders have failed to impose a framework on abatements or a way of determining when abatements have done their job (of spurring the market). So, this page will look at any past efforts to set some standards to the policy. Was there debate in city council to limit abatements once a building reached a certain value or when a census block reaches the county's average home sale price? Why or why not? 

By looking at the debates of the past, hopefully, we can begin to figure out when and if abatements should end or if they should be adjusted as markets change.

The following is a brief timeline of commercial tax abatement policy:

Tax abatement started in 1977 under Cleveland Mayor Ralph Perk after law firm Squires-Sanders wrote a state law for abatement, and then represented National City Bank, according to Roldo Bartimole. The bank got an abatement that was 100 percent for five years then decreased 25 percent every five years until, after 20 years, the abatement disappeared.

Public backlash for this 'corporate welfare' (NCB was and is one of the most profitable banks in the country) helped populist Dennis Kucinich become mayor on an anti-abatement campaign, Bartimole adds. 

In 1986, a cautious Mayor George Voinovich, made his first abatement for only seven years to the Triangle development in University Circle.  

By 1988, Voinovich and council president George Forbes granted a 100 percent abatement for 20 years to the developer of the Key Center office building. The full 20-year abatement, instead of the sliding scale used by Perk, became the model.

The following comment is on the history of the residential tax abatement policy (more to come):

"[The history] is kind of convoluted," says Cuyahoga County Treasurer Jim Rokakis. "In 1977, it was five years. Then it increased to seven years [under Voinovich]. Under [Mayor Michael] White it went to 10 years. By 1992, it went to 15 years."

"Before it went to 15 years, it had to be a housing subdivision of substance. If you were willing to build a major subdivision of 30 units or more, the city was willing to go longer," adds Rokakis, who served on city council in the 1980s.

Why did it switch over to 15 years?

"A lack of uniformity and developer pressure," says Rokakis.

Do you have another piece in the history of tax abatement policy in Cleveland? Add a comment.