Schumann's Cleveland Pages archives

This archive article is selected from The Cleveland Pages, the city's only weekly independent journal of politics and opinion on the Internet. Find out all about the Cleveland Pages here, or check out the current issue.

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Remembering Perk (23 April 1999)

The recent death of our former Mayor Ralph Perk provided an opportunity for his successors to pick up a few column inches of praise. One past mayor gushed about Perk's ability to bridge among ethnic groups; another one just really liked the way he maintained calm after the complicated Stokes years. Funny thing though, nobody thanked him for keeping the books balanced.

Perk's achievements

It was Ralph Perk who in 1972 sold the city's sewer system to cover operating expenses. He also pushed the assets of the Cleveland Transit Authority into the newly created Regional Transit Authority. And he made a habit of borrowing to the maximum short-term debt allowed by state law. Perk even attempted to sell Muny Light... all to avoid service cuts or a tax increase.

"While cultivating the image of a fiscal conservative," wrote one observer, "Perk increased the city's debt from $326 million in 1971 to about $434 million in 1977."

Perk initiated the widespread and indiscriminate use of tax abatements, which were looked upon as a kind of cost-free urban renewal program but really just mortgaged the city's future while distorting the intent of Ohio's enabling legislation. The big National City Bank abatement of 1977 came about only after a legally required "study" approved by Council determined intersection of East Ninth and Euclid to be blighted.

For Cleveland Pages readers who don't come here often, that is and has been for decades the center of the city's financial district, one of the most expensive pieces of real estate between New York and Chicago. It's no slum.

Given the "blight" on that corner, Perk and his Council were therefore empowered to waive land and property taxes on the newly planned National City Bank building that is there today. At the time, the projected tax revenue that was foregone by the city and (more substantially) school system was going to be $9 million--nowhere near the largest of our corporate welfare schemes, but precedent-setting.

Perk's legacy

When the financial house of cards fell apart late in 1978, Perk wasn't the Mayor and he wasn't the one who got blamed. Kucinich took the heat, presided over the default, and was exposed to a recall election.

Ralph Perk deserves some credit for his efforts at maintaining an upbeat social message in his three terms in office. But city employees don't get paid in smiles and handshakes. Perk's ongoing problems with money management ran up our debt and distorted our spending patterns for decades into the future. Losing control of the sewer system meant we lost corresponding leverage in negotiations with outlying areas on other topics.

Perk's mythology

The need of our media to prop up Perk's image, and that of Voinovich later on, caused them to develop a fake mythology. Kucinich, in his two years as Mayor with a minority in Council, came to be blamed for the fiscal disasters of Perk's six-year reign. Voinovich is still coasting on the political credit for rescuing the city from the mess, even though we continue to be maxed out on borrowing authority.

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