East Cleveland will ask its voters in November to raise the city’s income tax in a bid to climb out of 14 years of fiscal emergency. The inner-ring suburb of Cleveland is the first city to have its finances overseen by a court-appointed receiver under a new Ohio law.
The hike would raise the tax rate from 2% to 2.5%. Based on last year’s collections, the increase could bring in another roughly $970,000. That’s no small amount for a city that owes $2.6 million in unpaid bills, according to the latest monthly report from East Cleveland’s receiver.
Plenty of taxpayers are behind, too. The city plans to file around 500 collections lawsuits over $1 million in unpaid taxes, the receiver’s report said…