A Tree Grows in Cincinnati?

We’ve received reports that Cincinnati is getting into the tree growing business.  Well, actually, that’s not correct.  It’s more that the City is getting into the tree planting and uprooting business. 

A recent email alerted us that over the past few months perfectly healthy trees have been removed from Fountain Square, then replaced with smaller trees.  And now, those smaller trees – planted in just the past few months – are being replaced with larger trees!

At least with the streetcar there was a little creative thought put into ways to waste our money, now it’s simply mindless waste.  What’s next?  Will Mayor Mallory burn taxpayer money just to light his cigars??

The fiscal insanity has got to stop.

Email Council today and let them know how you feel about their abuse of taxpayers' money.

City of Cincinnati Property Tax Increase Alert

Cincinnati's budget deficit is approaching calamity. Earlier this week, City Manager Dohoney called for an increase in property taxes throughout Cincinnati.  The Enquirer report is available here.   City Councilman Christopher Smitherman has taken to the airwaves to alert Cincinnatians to the impending disaster.  Monday, Smitherman spoke with Brian Thomas on 550 WKRC, listen here. As Councilman Smitherman points out, The Enquirer's report misreports the amount of the deficit.  Cincinnati faces a deficit of $40.8 million.  Donohey's proposed property tax increase would reduce this only slightly, to a deficit of $33 million. In addition to this startling deficit, the City is underfunding its pension obligations by at least $50 million every year. Meanwhile, Mayor Mallory and the Democrats controlling Council continue to waste millions in taxpayer money on the streetcar boondoggle and the City Hall atrium. At the same time, and in the same breath, the Democrats controlling Council are planning to double the length of their terms!  That's right, they want to go four years between elections.  Does anybody really believe they've earned so much trust that they need less oversight from voters? Email Council today.  Let them know that it is unacceptable to increase property taxes. Click on this link to email council today.

Portune has no juice for ticket tax plan

COAST occasionally is accused of being "toast," and "ineffective," and a "paper tiger."  We have read our own obituary over and over.

We have seen the same accusation leveled at Christopher Smitherman and the NAACP.  They are "all talk and no action" and they are a "media sensation."

Yet when an establishment politician announces that he is going to place on the ballot a Charter Amendment, Cincinnati's establishment takes a bow and awaits their great works.  Todd Portune announced a year ago that he was going to collect the 7,000 signatures to place a ticket tax before the voters to solve the stadium funding problem.  (By this column, COAST does not render an opinion on that Portune plan.)

That "major" undertaking would be a grand total of 20 signatures a day for a year.  That should not be too hard for a man as accomplished and respected in Cincinnati as the great Todd Portune.

In contrast, the "empty suits," and "paper tigers" at COAST and the NAACP, led by Christopher Smitherman, have placed six issues on the ballot in Cincinnati since 2007, including the Super-Sized Jail Tax referendum that required 56,000 signatures in 45 days.  In addition to that, Smitherman-led initiatives included the ban on red light cameras, the ban on the sale of the Water Works, Proportional Representation, and two initiatives on the Cincinnati Streetcar.  Three of the six have passed into law.

And yet we await a vote on the Portune Charter Amendment.  The enquirer reports on that status of that initiative here.

Paper Tiger?  Empty suit?  Ineffective?  You decide.