It is time for Council to make some tough cuts.
Leslie Ghiz recently tweeted “The budget looms…Thoughts on ways to raise revenue W/O taxing.” It got me thinking, how can the city balance the budget? I would imagine there are few accounting tricks left in the bag to help balance the budget this time around. Real leadership is going to have to emerge to balance this budget.
Councilwoman Ghiz is right we need to increase revenue without increasing taxes. The problem is that increasing revenue without raising taxes takes time, and planning. This will not fix the budget problem in the short term.
So Cincinnati City Council has two choices, either raise taxes, fees, etc. or cut from the budget. To bridge what is nearly a $35 million dollar gap, I don’t see how council can any longer not make cuts to the Cincinnati Police Department and Fire Department given how much of the budget they take up. Believe me, I agree with the conservative block on council, in that the last thing I want council to do is layoff police officers and fire fighters. I have yet to see how the math adds up without some layoffs. My hope would be to minimize the layoffs to the rank and file by making reductions in administrative and non-police/fire personal and expenditures. An internal look at trying to save money by fixing inefficiencies within the departments would save money and jobs as well.
I think it is time for even the most avid supporter of police and fire to acknowledge that with declining city revenues and a declining city population that real cuts to the police and fire budget have to be made. These cuts should be done with care and with minimal impact to the rank and file, but unless someone has a realistic plan that doesn’t cut police and fire, it must be done.
Councilwoman Ghiz is right we must raise revenue without raising taxes. That comes through getting rid of red tape for businesses, working with our school board and neighborhood councils on making all of our neighborhoods attractive places to live, and investing in our infrastructure. This is where the streetcar comes in. It is a project out of the capital fund, and yes the operating cost will be a net loss for the city. But that doesn’t mean that the increase in property values and in turn property taxes would not offset those losses. The city has for years given multi-million dollar tax breaks to companies that have failed to deliver on promises to add jobs in Cincinnati. I am willing to give the city the chance in this project to invest in itself to attract citizens and business to Cincinnati, and in turn increase the tax base.
To increase revenues and to avoid going down the road when it comes to the budget in future years we must increase the tax base through population and job growth. Cincinnati does this by investing in itself through capital projects. We must make our city an attractive place to live not only through outstanding public safety, but with a great school system, strong neighborhoods, and making this city the easiest place to do business in the Midwest.
What does it say for those thinking to come to Cincinnati, if aren’t willing to invest in ourselves through projects like the streetcar? Councilwoman Ghiz is right we must raise revenues without raising taxes, but hard cuts to all departments including police and fire must happen first to balance the budget in the short term.
cincinnati voted for the streetcar, so that tells me cincinnati realizes the need to invest in infrastructure. unfortunately there is a very loud group of people who probably don’t even live within the city that think they must block this plan. look, the streetcar won’t solve all of our problems, but it will be an investment. it won’t pay for itself in revenue but no public transport pays for itself in revenue. the streetcar is a small step to making cincinnati an even more attractive city. it’s not mass public transport like the loudmouth pro-streetcar hipsters that haven’t even ridden on a streetcar think it is. but it would be a good addition to the city. it’s not the L train to bushwick ave folks, it’s a small streetcar that hardly goes anywhere. BUT, it’s a start. a start in the right direction. as far as laying off police and fire, i say go for it. you tell me you don’t have any police officers to patrol the tough neighborhoods. i say look on I-71. you’ll find lots of them from mile 1-6 catching speeders. you’ll also find some of the most bloated administrative groups in the city. if it were reversed and the population were growing in cincinnati the FOP would be screaming that we need to hire more cops because of the influx of people. it goes both ways. less people? less cops to protect them. so to sum up. here’s my comment. yes build a streetcar and lay off people. cause you know what? everyone else has been affected by this shit economy. perhaps union groups could be affected to. there, i said it.
Comment by krs | September 12, 2011
Legalize it. Even though I know this is a state driven issue and not one from the city level, the amount of money spent in search of, enforcing and jailing of people who grow and or smoke marijuana could be put to much better use in boosting the infrastructure of states and cities. It’s a shame that the religious right are basically the only people who vote. Because our politicians have to spend too much time and effort pandering to them to get any real change to happen. America is bankrupt, stagnant, and failing because we have to politicians undercut science and progress just because Bubba Joe doesn’t believe in evolution. We’re being left behind. While the rest of the world solves the big questions, we are content to sit here and bitch about gas prices and “why come we have a Kenyan as a president?”
So, Cincinnati want more revenue without taxes? Legalize drugs, legalize prostitution, invest in rehabilitation for the citizens who COULD be productive (tax paying) members of society if they could only afford help for their addictions. But then I guess helping out your fellow man isn’t the Christian thing to do.
Comment by Fergs | September 14, 2011