Second Cincinnati Tea Party

April 15 at 11:30 AM, Fountain Square
Be there – yeah, it’s really importantMore than 5,000 modern-day patriots gather
for first Cincinnati Tea Party March 15

The Cincinnati Tea Party is staging a second, and hopefully even bigger Tea Party rally on Cincinnati’s Fountain Square on Wednesday, April 15 at 11:30 AM. There, ralliers will gather and then march on City Hall to protest the trillion dollars in Congress’ claimed “stimulus” spending.

The rally date coincides, of course, with the federal and state income tax filing deadline and with nationwide rallies on the same date against the liberal democrat spending orgy in Washington.

The tax day tea parties follow up on dozens of tea parties throughout the nation in February and March. The Cincinnati Tea Party held on March 15 attracted more than 5,000 people and was the largest in the nation.

For more information, click here or contact Cincinnati Tea Party organizer Mike Wilson at mike@cincinnatiteaparty.org.

COASTers are encouraged to attend.

Trolley Petition Drive Fires Up

COASTers to collect signatures on April’s weekends

COAST will gather volunteers each Saturday during April to gather signatures on petitions to give voter input on City Council’s $200 million proposal build a trolley system running a 4-mile loop through three neighborhoods. COASTers will gather on Saturdays April 11, 18 and 25 at 10:00 AM at 2623 Erie Avenue and then spread out from there to collect signatures.

In response to City Council’s wasteful and inefficient trolley proposal, the WeDemandAVote.Com coalition, led by the NAACP, has launched a petition drive to force City Council to obtain voter approval before spending money on capital construction costs for such a system. The WeDemandAVote.Com coalition consists of the NAACP, COAST, the Green Party of Ohio and the Libertarian Party of Ohio. It first organized the petition drive against the super-sized jail tax, then organized the petition drive to give voters a choice on red light cameras, and also gave them the choice on proportional representation for City Council elections.

The trolley petition drive presently has only 2,000 of the needed 14,000 total signatures needed to place the issue on the November ballot. COAST has committed to gathering 1,000 signatures during the month of April.

Your help is needed. Contact COAST Chairman Jason Gloyd (240-4996 or Jason.gloyd@cbws.com) for more details on the drive and how you can help. COASTers may also just show up at 2623 Erie and receive forms take instructions from there.

After an entire year, private money raised for trolley: $0

(Goose egg in hand)

In April of last year, Cincinnati City Council passed a plan to implement a $200 million trolley system running over a four mile loop and serving three of Cincinnati’s neighborhoods. That plan was expressly contingent upon Council raising $32 million in funds for the project from private industry. How’s the private fundraising coming?

In August of last year, the City established a separate fund to accept private trolley contributions.

Now after an entire year COAST inquired as to exactly how much the City has raised from private donors. The answer: Zero, zip, nada, zilch. A big goose egg. That’s right, after 365 days of scouring the City for private donations for the pie-in-the-sky dream of a few out-of-touch Council members, not one red cent in private dollars has been raised for the trolley boondoggle.

Councilmember Chris Bortz committed at a meeting of the Blue Chip Young Republicans in April of 2008 that if the City did not raise the private funds, it would abandon the trolley plan. To date, the City has not yet abandoned the foolish plan.

As a reminder, those Council members voting against this profligate waste of money were Council members Monzel and Cranley; voting in favor were Ghiz, Thomas, Qualls, Berding, Bortz, and Crowley.

Read more about the original passage here.

Josh Mandel, Smitherman wow COASTers

April meeting draws 75 as momentum grows

State Rep. Josh Mandel drew a record crowd of 75 COASTers for a membership meeting, hammering the liberal Congress and Governor Strickland for taking our nation and Ohio in the wrong direction. The meeting also featured NAACP Christopher Smitherman launching COAST’s participation in the Cincinnati Trolley Charter Amendment petition drive and Cincinnati Tea Party founder Mike Wilson promoting their April 15 event on Fountain Square.

Representative Mandel represents suburban Cleveland in the Ohio legislature and wowed the crowd with his record of fighting higher taxes and spending in his home town and in Columbus. Mandel is a likely candidate for Ohio Treasurer in 2010.

Also featured at the meeting was NAACP President Christopher Smitherman who rallied COASTers for help in the Trolley petition drive. The NAACP is COAST’s partner in the WeDemandAVote.Com coalition which beat back the Super-Sized Jail Tax in 12007 and fought Red Light Cameras successfully in 2008.



Republican Party Central Committee women Mary Anne Christie and Christa Criddle also spoke and asked COASTers to support the April 14 “Party to the People” rally featuring Ohio GOP Chairman Kevin DeWine.

Red Light Cameras Retreat Throughout Ohio

COAST travels state to advance liberty

COAST and the WeDemandAVote.Com coalition are committed to running red light cameras out of Ohio. So far in 2009, they have made great strides toward this end.

In January, 67 residents of Toledo gathered on a cold Monday night to launch the petition drive to ban red light and speeding cameras in their City. Toledo was the first Ohio City to adopt the pernicious devices. To date, local organizers have gathered 3.000 signatures. A petition drive to repeal red light cameras has also been launched by local organizers in Chillicothe. Organizers in both cities are expected to attain ballot access for this November.

Victories were had without the need for petition drives in Pickerington and Canton where City Councils were convinced to turn away the temptations of increased revenues dangled by red light camera companies, which profit handsomely off of the devices.

In March, Republicans in the Ohio Senate turned down a proposal from the democrat House and liberal democrat Governor Strickland to implement speeding cameras on state highways, starting with construction zones.

Read here and here about the growing Ohio backlash against red light and speeding cameras. COAST still desires to take the fight into Columbus, Cleveland, Akron, Hamilton and Middletown. If you know of local lovers of liberty in these communities who want to organize their community against red light cameras, contact COAST legal counsel Chris Finney at 533-2980 or cfinney@fssp-law.com.

What’s up with the Water Works

Will new City Plan be a massive soaking?

Does Council plan to trickle on taxpayers?

COAST has participated in discussions with a variety of community groups concerned about a plan that purportedly will transfer operations of the water works to a new, semi-private entity. In the process, COAST has been told, water users or taxpayers will be asked to pay a second time for hundreds of millions of dollars of water district improvements that they already own. A Cincinnati City Manager’s report with his recommended course of action is expected at the end of April. Read below an editorial from Josh Krekler, a WeDemandAVote.Com coalition member from the Green Party of Southwest Ohio.

Is Cincinnati Planning a Step Towards Privatizing Our Water?

In October 2007, Cincinnati City Manager Milton Dohoney began exploring the feasibility of transforming the Cincinnati Water Works (CWW) into the Greater Cincinnati Water District. In a memo to the Mayor and City Council dated 10/1/07, Dohoney stated that “There is potential that the development of a Water District would have positive financial implications for the City of Cincinnati. Given our financial challenges looking at other alternatives is clearly warranted.” The working group that’s been conducting the feasibility study is expected to submit its report to City Council (through the City Manager) within the next six weeks. While the details have not been finalized, the plan apparently is to sell CWW to the new Water District for between $300 million and $500 million, which would be paid to the City over several years. This plan, and the relatively little publicity it’s received, raises some troubling questions.

• How would the Water District be accountable to the people of Cincinnati? The Water District would be a separate public agency governed by an appointed board. It would no longer be directly under the City administration. If sufficient accountability and transparency are not guaranteed, there will be greater opportunities for corruption and decisions that do not serve the public interest.
• How would the transformation to a Water District guarantee perpetual local control of the water system? A board that isn’t directly accountable to citizens would have much more latitude to pursue selling the water system to a private buyer some time in the future. If they do – and there is no shortage of private water companies eager to take control of municipal systems – a corporate board in a different city or country would be setting local water policies with little input from the residents affected by those policies.
• How would the Water District generate the revenue to buy CWW from the City? While the advocates of the Water District plan within CWW are anticipating that the new structure would allow them to buy infrastructure and water plants outside their current service area, it would almost certainly be necessary to raise water rates to generate the money needed for the purchase. This is absolutely unacceptable. The City Manager is, effectively, proposing to ask us to pay to buy something that we already own!

Rather than trusting, or simply hoping, that these questions will be resolved in the public’s favor, citizens should ask City Council to reject the proposal. Please call or e-mail all City Councilmembers, tell them you’re concerned about the implications of the plan, and politely ask them not to recommend the creation of the Water District. You may also wish to contact Mayor Mallory and City Manager Dohoney. Fortunately, a citizens’ group called Protect Our Water has formed to educate the public and organize opposition to the plan. Please visit their informative Web site at www.natiprotectourwater.org and spread the word about this questionable proposal to your friends and neighbors.

There is no good reason to sell Cincinnati Water Works. CWW provides high-quality water at reasonable rates. If a separate group is put in charge, service quality could decline, rates will almost definitely go up, and residents who have trouble paying their water bills could find themselves faced with indifferent bureaucratic obstacles to maintaining their access to water. CWW is an efficient public system that pays for itself. More importantly, water is a vital resource, and people should do what they can to make sure their water supplies stay in the control of their local governments.

By Josh Krekler

Schneider Announces for State Senate

Yet another Republican with poor record on taxes and spending

Former State Representative Michelle Schneider has launched her campaign for the Ohio Senate in 2010, seeking to replace State Senator Bob Schuler. Unfortunately, Schneider has a pathetic record on tax and spending issues from her eight years in Columbus.

Schneider won her seat representing northeast Hamilton County and parts of Warren County in 2000 pledging to oppose all tax increases while in the legislature. Well, Schneider was consistent in breaking that pledge, voting 100% of the time in favor of Bob Taft’s many tax increases. These included:

• Supported a 1 cent increase in the state sales taxes;
• Supported a 27% increase in the gasoline tax;
• Supported new taxes on dry cleaning;
• Supported an entirely new Commercial Activity Tax on Ohio businesses;
• Supported increased taxes on alcohol and cigarettes.

Schneider also reliably supported wasteful spending while in Columbus, including:

• Schneider was the champion for funding for the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center (accepting thousands of dollars from the Pepper family for this apostasy);
• Schneider supported wasteful spending to bring the Olympics to Cincinnati;
• Schneider supported the wasteful Taft-sponsored Third Frontier initiative;
• Schneider voted for multiple state budgets increasing spending in the double digits, leading to the serial tax increases she also supported and the budget crises Ohio faces today.

Schneider had one bright spot in her 8-year stint in Columbus, helping COAST to expose the wasteful spending at Drake Center. But this single brave act in nearly a decade does not outweigh her years of breaking her pledge and stabbing southwest Ohio taxpayers in the back.

COAST fervently hopes a better candidate emerges than former Rep. Schneider.

Do a few world leaders actually “get it”?

Czech Premier, EU Parliament member criticizes “new world order” as THE ROAD TO HELL

Thinking the entire world has gone mad and no one appreciates the strength and progress birthed by capitalism? Don’t despair. Read here how the premier of a former communist country warns the world about the western embrace of command economies. He calls the new policy direction “a road to hell.”

And for your viewing pleasure, watch here European Parliament member Daniel Hannon speaking the truth to socialist English Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Absolutely brilliant.

Too bad these folks can’t run for Congress in the USA. And too bad our Congressmen can’t speak as eloquently in the USA as MEP Daniel Hannon. Can you imagine Jean Schmidt thinking this clearly or trying to deliver these lines? Can’t we do better, Cincinnati?

Important Perspectives on Obama’s Budget

Read here and below about important perspectives on the radical change to the US budget and economy that Obama’s budget represents.

Truth About Obama's Budget

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