Four Council members and one Mayor directly responsible for Cincinnati's woes
Wendell Young, Laure Quinlivan, Cecil Thomas and Roxanne Qualls condemn Cincinnati to police layoffs or massive tax increase
Voting is already underway for Cincinnati's newest Council. And in many ways COASTers know the results largely don't matter. They don't matter because Cincinnati -- formerly the economic and political engine that drives the region -- has rather become a back-bencher in both arenas, with its governing body the laughing stock of the area.
And for that, we have the failed legacy of liberal democrat leadership to thank, presently embodied by Mayor Mark Mallory and his sycophants on Council, Wendell Young, Laure Quinlivan, Cecil Thomas and Roxanne Qualls.
Under the leadership of democrats, Cincinnati's population has shrunk from a high of more than 500,000 in the 1960s to fewer than 297,000 today, a drop of 34,000 in just 10 years. (That's nearly 10 people leaving Cincinnati every single day for 10 years straight, never to return.) And it is no wonder. Census figures show, Cincinnati has one of the highest rates of poverty in the nation.
On top of that, the crime rate has soared, with Cincinnati's streets no longer considered safe, and basic services like trash collection and snow plowing have eroded. On any given day, 17.5% of firehouses are "browned out" -- unavailable for emergency runs.
In the midst of Cincinnati burning, Young, Quinlivan, Thomas and Qualls are fiddling with expensive, mindless projects that do nothing either to grow jobs or to even help the most helpless in our community. Consider these Council members' actions over the past two years:
- Voted to proceed with a foolhardy $130 million streetcar project opposed by 62% of Cincinnati voters, Congressman Steve Chabot, Governor Kasich, the Ohio Legislature, the County Commission, the FOP, Firefighters, CODE Labor union, the NAACP, Baptist Ministers, Westwood Concern, and others.
- Voted to spend $3.5 million to lease high-tech recycling carts with embedded RFID (Radio Frequency Identifier) chips, which echo back their code when queried by the transmitter. (A little added big-brother-ism there as a bonus!)
- Gave $300,000 in annual operating support to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.
- They have implemented two sequential structurally-imbalanced budgets and spent the pension fund into the red by $800 million.
- Laure Quinlivan is using City staff -- to the tune of thousands of tax dollars -- to run her political campaign from City Hall.
And their plan? At least Cecil Thomas has been up front about it, the rest have been coy: They want a massive earnings tax increase to fund their largess.
Yes, COAST predicts that by May of 2012, these four Council members will back an increase in the City's earnings tax from the current 2.1% to 2.5% or more. With a majority of Council promising no cuts in major areas of the budget, and foolish new spending like the above, the massive tax hike is inevitable.
So, consider not just ejecting these four policy-makers on election day, but also the dangerous path they have set for Cincinnati in considering your votes this November. If you do, Cincinnati could have a much brighter future.
Cincinnati likely will return these most of these four jokers, but the decision will really be to make Cincinnati even more irrelevant in the 21st Century.
Isn't there a better way?
Better way: COAST continues its spiral into irrelevance, with panicked fits and spitting, angry lies, as usual. Just as childish as when they began.
ReplyDeleteI've got an idea for you all: How about if Jason Gloyd, Mark Miller, Chris Finney, Chris Smitherman, and Stephan Louis all get your own houses into order, and stop wasting time writing well-known inaccuracies on this blog intended to mislead conservative voters.
The streetcar is not costing $130M, especially not money which can be legally appropriated elsewhere.
The recycling program you lament has proven to drive the biggest one-year increase in recycling within the city since its inception. This will save millions more in tipping fees, and preserve space at the Rumpke landfill for future generations to use.
It may cost money to operate every year, but educating the public on the atrocities that occurred during the slave trade and commemorating those who were strong enough to stand up against injustice is definitely worth putting my tax dollars into.
The structural imbalance has been mostly driven over the past six years by a "fiscal majority" which has typically consisted of Jeff Berding, all Republicans, and at times one more conservative Democrat.
We fully support higher taxes to close this budget deficit. We don't want the government to tighten their belt, we want you to tighten yours.
ReplyDeleteWe applaud Cecil Thomas, Laure Quinlivan, Wendell Young, Roxanne Qualls, and Leslie Ghiz for everything they have done to raise taxes and increase spending. Now we need them to raise the income tax, raise property taxes, implement a trash tax, and build a streetcar. Then you'll see a great city!
"Yes, COAST predicts that by May of 2012, these four Council members will back an increase in the City's earnings tax from the current 2.1% to 2.5% or more."
ReplyDeleteIt's now May 2013 and yet another one of your predictions is proven wrong.