Tying it all together -- the desperate search for cash

Step back for a minute and ask: What the heck is really going on at City Hall under Mayor Mallory, Council member Qualls and City Manager Milton Dohoney?


Parking meter sale, and attempts at Red Light Cameras, a sale of the Water Works sale, and a trash tax.  We have heard rumors that the City has been trying to sell the rail lines that it owns, a sort of annuity left to it from prior (and more responsible) City Councils.

What is going on here?

Well, in the case of the Water Works sales and the long-term lease of parking meters, and the rumored sale of the City's rail lines, the City is trying to monetize or securet-ize the income streams the City has reliably received for decades into a lump-sum cash payment so the City can continue its reckless, imbalanced spending.

So, the City today gets $9 million in parking revenue.  It trades that for $92 million up front and $3 million per year going forward.  As one of the best commentors on the Cincinnati.Com story on the parking meter sale says: "What happens in three years, when Council has burned through the $92 million, and now has $6 million per year in income less than today?  How bad will the layoffs be then?"

As to the red light cameras and the trash tax, which COAST and the NAACP skillfully prevented, the administration is desperately looking for new income streams to spend, and monetize or securet-ize at a later date.

The bottom line is that the citizenry is a cow to be milked by Mallory, Qualls, and Dohoney, and the remaining Council majority are their willing milkmaids in the dairy farm.