Guest columnists Dylan Armstrong and Suzanna Thiese are, respectively, public policy fellow and research fellow for The Center for Community Solutions.

The investments made by the federal government in Cuyahoga County are irreplaceable.

If these investments were to disappear overnight, the county would need to pass 68 health and human services levies — similar to just the one in 2024 — to make up the shortfall.

This would be an impossible ask of tax-paying residents.

Federal investments in Cuyahoga County support safety net programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Head Start, as well as non-profits, higher education and small businesses.

In Fiscal Year 2021, the federal government invested $9.4 billion in Cuyahoga County to support these programs.

Federal funds are distributed in Cuyahoga County through several channels:

• Directly from the federal government to local government

• From the federal government to the state government, which then allocates the funding as it sees fit

• Directly from the federal government to local entities

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services was one of the top investors from the federal government in 2021, at $1.8 billion. Much of that investment went to support research at the world-class hospitals and universities that call Cuyahoga County home.

Investments in Cuyahoga County support a wide variety of social programs and services that ensure the well-being of the county and its residents.

Medicaid, SNAP and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) are all supported through federal funding, along with the National School Lunch and Breakfast programs, which would be unable to function without federal support.

SNAP alone serves nearly 1.4 million Ohioans, including almost 600,000 children.

Fiscal Year 2021 also included COVID-19 response and relief funding, which provided important monies to ensure that counties had the resources necessary to not only protect our community, but to ensure that the community recovered from the health emergency.

There is no single entity — state or local government, philanthropic, or other — that could fully replace these investments. While these actors could work to offset certain aspects, it would be impossible to replace the entire amount.

Consider Cuyahoga County’s most recently approved Health and Human Services property tax levy. This was a 4.8-mill levy, generating nearly $137 million and costing property owners about $9.50 per month on $100,000 of home value.

If the goal were to replace federal investments that are in peril, the 68 similar levies necessary would cost the same property owner an additional $646 a month — a completely unfeasible and unrealistic scenario.

If this investment from the federal government disappears, so will the programs it supports.

This means fewer programs to feed hungry children and families; fewer research projects at Case Western Reserve University, the Cleveland Clinic and other local hospital systems; less funding for affordable housing; less access to healthcare, emergency assistance, senior and youth services, and fewer resources for transportation projects.

Federal investments are not a luxury — they’re a lifeline.

Large-scale funding cuts would have profound consequences for our health, safety and well-being. We must fight to protect this funding to secure a stronger future for our community.

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