CLEVELAND -- Voters county-wide will face a November levy that will produce revenue to make improvements keeping up the Port of Cleveland, the lakefront and mouth of the Cuyahoga River.
On Wednesday, the Port board voted to put a 5-year, 0.67 mill property tax hike on the ballot.
The proposed levy would increase taxes from a present $3.50 to $20 per $100,000 of property values.
It would bring in $18 million a year through tax year 2017.
Port Chair Bob Smith said, "This is the right time and the right plan. With this proposed levy, we aim to make essential public investments that could yield a high return and drive additional investments to sustain our community's momentum."
Spending would be concentrated on improving the Port's maritime facilities, better handle dredging of sediment from the mouth of the river, stabilize risky slopes and restoring bulkheads along the shipping channel, improving truck and pedestrian connection to the west side of the Flats, and helping build a pedestrian bridge to the lakefront along with the Lakefront Multimodal project.
The Port board also agreed to shrink the portion of lakefront property the Port leases from the city. That will resize Port operations and make more land available for lakefront development.
And it okayed a deal with the City of Cleveland so the Port would manage bulkhead and embankment issues within Cleveland's breakwater and along the river's shipping channel.
WKYC-TV