Dissecting the Mayor's Press Conference

Last Thursday, only hours after Judge Winkler's ruling came down, Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory held a press conference at which he laid out the desperate fiscal situation the City finds itself in under his stewardship.

Please watch it here as it contains six minutes of remarkable admissions of failure on his part.
COAST below dissects his presentation for you:

First of Four PUCO Public Hearings Tonight...

Ohio's PUCO will be holding four public hearings on Duke's Rate Increase Request (details below)

Included in the Request is the Streetcar Electric Tax. As detailed here and here. If allowed, this will result in the cost of the Streetcar being covered by Electricity users throughout the region, not solely within the City Limits.

Tonight's Meeting:

6:30 P.M. Fairfield Township Administrative Building 

6032 Morris Road

Hamilton, OH 45011

Directions here. 

The best way to ensure that this cost is born by the City of Cincinnati is for PUCO to Deny the Request for the Streetcar Tax (Officially Rider FRT) and declare that the City of Cincinnati is responsible for the costs of relocating utility lines for the Streetcar.

Approximately 500 people have already submitted comments online. Submit your comments in person tonight or online here. Make sure to reference Case Number 12-1682-EL-AIR. Read other comments here.

Enquirer Misses Important Facts

Cindi Andrews at the Enquirer has an article reviewing the latest of the Cincinnati Streetcar Boondoggle and the Duke PUCO case.

Ms. Andrews states "Many are non-city residents who mistakenly think they’re being asked to pay the estimated $15 million cost to move utility lines out of the rails’ way."

Sorry Ms. Andrews, but unfortunately, those non-city residents are not mistaken. As Ohio's Office of Consumers' Counsel rightly points out in its Objections to the Staff Report:

Roxanne Qualls - Still Crazy After all These Years

Reading Roxanne Qualls' memo to City Manager Dohoney and Mayor Mallory we were reminded of that great Paul Simon song, "Still Crazy After all These Years."

She tries to sound like she hasn't drunk the Streetcar Kool-Aid; like she's a reasonable, thoughtful person. But then, just when you start to believe, "maybe Roxie's not so bad after all, maybe she does get it," she reminds you just how far down the path of Streetcar Sycophancy she has gone:

The goal of this approach is to bring the streetcar into service in time for the All Star-Game and on budget.

Duke Files Suit Against Cincinnati - The Game is Afoot

Duke Energy finally filed its claim for Declaratory Judgment against the City of Cincinnati on Valentine's Day! Honestly, could the week be any better for COAST??

It is Duke's position that Cincinnati's Ordinance No. 349-2012 unconstitutionally amended the Municipal Code to shift the cost of relocating utility lines for the Streetcar Boondoggle to Duke.

Duke rightly points out that if this Ordinance is allowed to stand, the cost of the streetcar will be born by non-Cincinnati residents. Including residents of Hamilton, Butler, Clermont and Warren Counties.

We cannot wait to watch the fur fly!

  Duke v Cincinnati Complaint by  

Read the Enquirer story here.

Opposition to Parking Plan Rising

A recent public records request by COAST shows that while Cincinnati City Council passed a budget all but guaranteeing that our on-street parking resources would be privatized, they were being inundated with letters and emails in opposition to the plan.

While the City is dragging it's feet in actually providing all of the documents requested, letters from two of Cincinnati's most "establishment" bodies show just how wide and deep the opposition to the Mallory/Quall's agenda is.

Read the letters for yourself below:

Aesop's Fables for Politicians...

As children many of us learned to read with Aesop's fables.  Stories from ancient Greece which contained simple life lessons.

Cincinnati's proposed budget leads us to believe that perhaps a refresher course might be in order for our elected officials.

We start with The Goose That Laid the Golden Egg

A man and his wife owned a very special goose. Every day the goose would lay a golden egg, which made the couple very rich.

"Just think," said the man's wife, "If we could have all the golden eggs that are inside the goose, we could be richer much faster."

"You're right," said her husband, "We wouldn't have to wait for the goose to lay her egg every day."

So, the couple killed the goose and cut her open, only to find that she was just like every other goose. She had no golden eggs inside of her at all, and they had no more golden eggs.

Will anyone on City Council think about this as they vote to slash open the Goose by leasing out the parking operations, increasing taxes, and decreasing services?

Business Courier has Coverage of Rescission of Reciprocity

As COAST first reported here, City Manager Milton Dohoney is pushing to rescind Cincinnati's income tax reciprocity.

Dan Monk has the story up at the Cincinnati Business Courier.

Cincinnati Credit Rating in Jeopardy

As Mayor Mallory and the City Council dicker over whether to cut Arts Funding from the City Budget, the grown ups at Standard and Poors are raising the alarm; assigning a "negative outlook" on the City's finances.

Ultimately, this will increase the cost of borrowing, which means that the cost of all city projects and services will go up.

In part this "negative outlook" is due to the $32.6 Million in one time revenue sources used to "balance" the 2013 proposed budget. COAST has that story here.

Add on top of this news that Council is preparing right now to borrow $33 Million toward the Streetcar.

Cincinnati's budget gap is a serious problem.  Now is the time for serious people to stand firm and stop the Streetcar Boondoggle. Every member of Council will be running either for re-election or Mayor next year.  The 2013 budget should be a litmus test for every voter.  We are watching.

Use this link to email council now and let them know you are watching.  

The Enquirer has more here.  The Business Courier has the story here.

City Manager Dohoney informed Council of the issue in the memo below.

Dohoney Bond Memo

Dohoney Reveals Budget

Relies on One Time Revenue

Tax Increases and Cuts to Services

Paving the way for even more tax increases!

The wait is over.  Mayor Mallory's final budget has been released. Available for review below.

Among the "Biggies" in the budget is the proposal to lease the City's parking operations for thirty years.  City Manager Dohoney promises this will raise at least $40 Million up front.  Of this promised $40 Million, $21 Million will be used to plug the 2013 Deficit.

Another $11.6 Million from the "2012 General Fund carryover balance" comes from "one-time sources."  Of course, this begs the question, where will the city find that $32.6 Million for the 2014 budget?  Gee, what would we expect a newly elected City Council sitting on a four year term to do to plug that giant budget hole???

But enough about future tax increases.  Let's talk about the tax increases coming in this budget:

The budget proposes eliminating the property tax rollback, resulting in a 32% increase in City Property taxes.

Live in the City but work outside the city?  Say goodbye to the Municipal Income Tax Reciprocity.  For instance, if you live in the city but work in Blue Ash, you will be paying 3.35% in Municipal income tax.  Aren't you thrilled with the leadership of our fair city?

And how about cuts to services?

Own a business in the city or live in one of those wonderful new apartments at the Banks?  Or in any apartment building with more than 5 apartments?  Guess what?  The City won't be collecting your garbage anymore!  Guess what else? Your rent will be going up to pay for garbage collection.  But don't worry, the City expects to collect a new "solid waste collection fee" of 10% of gross revenues from the people you pay to collect your garbage.  We have to ask this: if you get paid to pick up garbage, aren't all your revenues gross? But seriously, who do you think will be paying that 10% gross revenue fee?  If you said the consumer, go to the head of the class - of course, you might just be leaving the City entirely!

Also cut:
Media Bridges funding is eliminated, as are Arts Grants and the Downtown and Neighborhood Gateways Program.

Feel like staring into the abyss yourself?  Read the whole thing here:

Cincinnati Budget 2013