NAACP and Smitherman do it again!

Proud civil rights organization

leads in stopping Streetcar

As Mayor Mallory, and Council members Qualls, Quinlivan, Thomas and Young, foolishly are thrusting Cincinnati headlong into a $135 million streetcar project, the Cincinnati NAACP led by Christopher Smitherman has worked tirelessly to place a second charter amendment before the voters that will stop the project and its attendant operating deficit.

The issue will appear on the November ballot in Cincinnati as Issue 48. Voters must vote yes to stop the streetcar project.

Thanks go to all coalition partners that joined together to gather the signatures to empower the voters on this topic: NAACP, the SW Ohio Green Party, the Ohio Libertarian Party, COAST, the Baptist Ministers Conference, the Fraternal Order of Police, the Firefighters Union, the CODE labor union, Westwood Concern, C.A.S.S. and the Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition. However, make no mistake that the heavy lifting on the petition drive was led week in and week out by the volunteers of the NAACP.

Our thanks go out to them.

Now it is up to the Cincinnati voters to put a stop to this project -- a misdirection for the City -- once and for all. VOTE YES on Issue 48 for Fiscal Sanity.

CPS seeks massive tax hike during recession

Clueless, liberal and wasteful School Board pushes huge tax hike

Hoping to fly under the radar with a quiet campaign, Cincinnati Public Schools has placed on the ballot a strange levy and a huge one.

The 7.95 mill levy will cost the owner of a $200,000 home about $500 per year in increased taxes (you read that right!). That homeowner already pays more than $2,600 per year just for the public school portion of his tax bill. COAST is not sure of the term of this levy -- as of press time we are still checking.

The strange part of the levy is what the money goes towards. The levy is known as a "Permanent Improvement Levy," and will generate annually an additional $49.5 million for the district, exclusively for technology, software, textbooks and other improvements with a life of at least five years. That's right, nearly $50 million annually that does not go to either salaries or buildings!

Further, with property values declining in the coming triennial (starting next year), tax rates on the typical home will automatically skyrocket without a vote.

So, if this massive levy passes, Cincinnati homeowners, already reeling from the recession, declining home values, the foreclosure crisis, and rising tax rates, now also have to cope with a enormous additional property tax burden to support CPS' wasteful spending patterns.

Schmidt named one of Congress' "most corrupt"

Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics in Washington (CREW) names local Congressman as one of Washington's worst

This news item caught COAST's attention: The Center for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has named local Congressman Jean Schmidt as one of the most corrupt members of the United States Congress. You can read the release here and the full 9-page report here.

CREW is the leading, non-partisan voice in D.C. on ethics in Congress, speaking out forcefully on the Charlie Rangel and Maxine Waters ethics investigations, for example.