Hamilton County homeowners face four more years of higher property taxes to provide more money to the stadiums and the teams who inhabit them. That's the plan that has been submitted by Commission President Greg Hartmann and the County Administrator. The other two Commissioners, Chris Monzel and Todd Portune, have each submitted their own plans which include no property tax increases.
As part of the 1996 Stadium Sales Tax vote, homeowners were promised that 30% of those Sales Tax revenues would be refunded to them in the form of the Property Tax Rollback (PTR). Through 2009 this promise was kept. In December 2010, Commissioner Greg Hartmann and then-Commissioner David Pepper broke this promise, taking away most of that rollback for 2011.
Hartmann and the County Administrator are looking to strip 70-75% of this PTR through at least 2015. Both Monzel and Portune believe that the PTR promise should kept. All three plans currently lack a second vote, which provides a good opportunity for citizen involvement to affect the final outcome.
Everyone is encouraged to contact the Commissioners with their thoughts. Hartmann is looking to pass his plan Monday morning before the Commissioners have any opportunity to hear the public's thoughts. Please encourage all three Commissioners to: 1) support a plan which includes the full PTR; and 2) postpone Monday's planned vote to allow for public comment.
I would like to remind everyone that I campaigned vigorously for that stadium tax increase. I appeared in the tv ads begging everyone to vote for that "jobs" plan.
ReplyDeleteNow I support the streetcar "jobs" plan. I promise, the streetcar will do just as much good for the city as the stadiums have.
Isn't it interesting when the Black Democratic Mayor of Cincinnati talked about possibly raising the property tax, the Hamilton County GOP issued a press release condemning that idea, passed out a flyer stating that we won't stand for higher taxes, and organized a rally in opposition to the idea? The Tea Party, like the lap dogs they are, dutifully fell into line and also opposed it.
ReplyDeleteBut when Greg Hartmann proposes a property tax hike, the GOP and RepubliTea Party are nowhere to be found. Why are Democratic tax increases so bad and Republican tax increases so good?
COAST never proposes any action to solve problems. It is an easy platform to say "not my problem, I'm not paying for it". The private sector can't and won't solve certain issues because they have no vested interest in them. The stadiums should have been all private funds, but we listened to Finney and now we have to clean up that mess.
ReplyDeleteYes it's too bad Hamilton County listened to all those tv ads featuring Roxanne Qualls urging them to raise taxes for the stadiums. The Roxanne Qualls/Bob Bedinghaus Stadium Tax sure has been a disaster for the county. Proof that stupidity can be 100% bipartisan.
ReplyDeleteOn the plus side, Chris Monzel and Todd Portune came up with an excellent bipartisan solution that saved the property tax rollback for next year. I'm sure Roxanne Qualls and Bob Bedinghaus oppose it because it doesn't involve raising our taxes.