Former Commissioner Neyer files bankruptcy

Tom Neyer was one of Hamilton County's worst Commissioners ever. Neyer is most known for joining with fellow Commissioner Bob Bedinghaus to pass the stadium deals that have bankrupted Hamilton County. Born with every advantage possible, Neyer has squandered all of it and recently filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

Neyer's filing revealed assets of $1.4 million with debts of $69 million. In other words, Neyer ran his own finances about as well as he and Bedinghaus ran Hamilton County's.

When appointed to be County Commissioner, Neyer was a 30-year-old neophyte with no elected experience, no financial skills, no ability to understand issues, no business skills, and even his work history was limited. So that was the best the Hamilton County Republican Party could find? Somehow I don't buy that. They could have thrown a water balloon into Fountain Square and hit someone more qualified to be County Commissioner.

Perhaps in the comments section, someone can explain to me how this incompetent person was the Hamilton County GOP's choice to be appointed Hamilton County Commissioner in 1997. Please name names and point fingers. This region needs to start learning from its mistakes so we can stop repeating them.

There are serious consequences to selecting unqualified hacks to fill important positions, and there's a lot of people (especially the current County Commissioners) who need to understand this. Thanks to Neyer and Bedinghaus, Hamilton County is bankrupt today. Bedinghaus and Neyer said we could build two stadiums for $500 million combined, heavily subsidize the Cincinnati Public Schools, build the Banks, build Fort Washington Way, build the Transit Center, give away the store to the Bengals, and reduce property taxes through the Property Tax Rollback, all for a 1/2 cent Sales Tax hike that would expire by 2017 at the latest.

In reality the stadium Sales Tax will stay on the books through at least the year 2032. Even worse, in spite of these 35 years of stadium taxes the stadium fund will be running large annual deficits through 2032 which will likely total $700 million or more! This means Hamilton County will have to pass another stadium tax increase, or follow Neyer's example and file Chapter 9 Municipal Bankruptcy which looks like a better option every day.

Tom Neyer has managed to bankrupt not just himself, but also an entire urban county. That's quite an accomplishment for one person.