Bad Trash Fee for Small Businesses Starts Oct. 1st

From Christopher Smitherman:

Effective October 1, all Cincinnati businesses will pay a fee to have their trash collected. Cincinnati City Council voted 7-2 in December to stop providing trash collection to small businesses. The two Council members who voted no, were Charlie Winburn and Christopher Smitherman. 

If you live in a township, you don't pay a 2.1% tax; you pay as you go for services, like trash collection. Living in the City, you pay a flat 2.1% tax for services which is supposed to cover trash pick up. The trash fee vote by Council reduced services to small business. For example, a barber/beauty shop will pay a monthly fee to have a private company pick up their trash as well as continue to pay the 2.1% tax. Now that Council has opened the door to this monthly fee, the fee WILL increase year after year. It will not stay at $14.

When driving by barber shops and beauty salons that have yard signs in their businesses supporting Democratic candidates, you must wonder if they know those same candidates are the ones who voted to stop trash services to small businesses and charge a trash fee.

This is another reason why I continue to support John Cranley for Mayor. Roxanne Qualls was 1 of the 7 who voted for the trash fee for small businesses. All of these will be passed on to the costumers.

I strongly encourage you NOT to use a Democratic sample ballot when you vote because you will be voting for candidates who continue to charge you higher fees and raise your taxes, making it more difficult for you to live. My democratic colleagues will spend more time throwing around labels trying to divide and distract you from their voting record.

I am NOT a Democrat; I am NOT a Republican; I AM an Independent. You don't have to vote for 9 candidates for Council. You can vote for 1 and up to 9. Once you vote for more than 5 or 6 candidates, your ballot is not as powerful. Keep this in mind when you enter the ballot box.

To learn more or contribute to  Christopher Smitherman's Campaign click here.

Trash tax ban also on the ballot

Issue 47 gives voters a say in this important battle

For the past three years, the City Manager and Mayor have tried to balance their bloated budget on the backs of Cincinnati residents by charging a new tax collection fee -- forgetting that we pay earnings taxes already to pay for that service!

Once again, liberals on Council supported the proposal, and only a forceful lobbying effort by COAST and others stopped the new tax each year.

Again, Christopher Smitherman and the NAACP toiled over the spring and summer to stop the fee, collecting signatures on a Charter Amendment to ban the tax. COAST provided assistance and helped collect signatures.

The issue will appear on the Cincinnati ballot as Issue 47. Voters must vote "Yes" to stop the trash tax.

Garfield Heights petitions against red light cameras & trash tax

Press conference 4:00 PM followed by petiton filing with the Garfield Heights Clerk of Council

For immediate release:  Monday, July 19, 2010
For more information:  

Frank Wagner, 216-799-2909 (Garfield Heights)

Christopher P. Finney, 513-720-2996 (COAST) 

                                             

Citizens for a Greater Garfield Heights will conclude their successful 2010 dual petition drive to fight Red Light Cameras and to Ban the recently imposed Rubbish Collection Tax within the City of Garfield Hts.. The citizens group with the assistance of COAST will be filing their petitions with the Garfield Hts Clerk of Council to place the two Charter amendments on the November 2010 General Election Ballot.     The details of the gathering are as follows:

The front steps of the Garfield Heights Civic Center

5407 Turney Road

Garfield Heights, OH 44125

Monday, July 19, 2010 at 4:00 pm

In 2009, at least three other cities in Ohio batted back Red Light Cameras.  Pickerington residents defeated the plan with legislative action, and voters in Chillicothe and Heath, Ohio banned the cameras with ballot initiatives.  In 2008, Cincinnati voters banned the pernicious and intrusive devices with a Charter Amendment.

The  Garfield Heights Charter Amendment proposals are modeled after Cincinnati's and will effectively ban unmanned red light and speeding cameras from being enforced in City limits. The second charter amendment will ban the Rubbish Collection Tax imposed by the City Council and the current  Administration.

Cincinnati Residents Avoid Trash Tax (for now)

New Council member Laure Quinlivan
wants trash tax on City residents

Four Council members, the Mayor and City manager are committed to imposing a $20 per month trash tax on Cincinnati residents, the same residents who are being driven from their homes in record foreclosures due to already-high property taxes. 

Thanks to COAST members who called and wrote their Council members, and Council members Leslie Ghiz, Chris Monzel, Charlie Winburn, Jeff Berding and Chris Bortz, that trash tax was not included in the 2010 budget.

COASTers should be aware that new Council member Laure Quinlivin, and Council veterans Cecil Thomas, Laketa Cole, and Roxanne Qualls all supported raising the trash tax.  Because Council closed its budget gap by spending down its reserves rather than cutting spending and because big government advocates never go away, COAST confidently predicts that the trash tax proposal will be back again.

COAST Helps Dump Trash Tax

Facing protests, Council Flees From Bad Idea "Like Scalded Dogs"

On the same day that COAST rallied to stop the City’s drive to implement a $200 per household per year tax on trash collection, Mayor Mallory announced his formal budget proposal to the Council and eliminated the hated tax.

“Once again, by shining the light and applying some heat on the politicians, COAST has succeeded in defeating bad policy,” said COAST Chairman Jason Gloyd. “The voters understand, even if bureaucrats to do, that Cincinnnati, Hamilton County and the State of Ohio are already high-tax areas.”

Citing “hundreds” of e-mails and phone calls received by his office on the topic, Mayor Mallory abandoned the City’s mis-guided claim to money of City residents for a service that has been part of general fund expenditures for as long as anyone can remember.