Hamilton County is coming up short on paying for the Stadiums.

Over the last several months the big news when it has come to county politics has been the shortfall of tax revenue to pay for Paul Brown Stadium and Great American Ballpark. The County Commissioners are currently in a heated debate on how to pay for the stadiums. It appears that the Citizens of Hamilton County are likely to see a tax increase because of this situation. Unfortunately the County Commissioners are looking at a short term fix rather than looking for long term solutions.

Obviously there has to be some short term solutions and they are going to be tough and unpopular. With that said the first thing I would recommend is an across the board 10% cut in every department. I am sure departments would say they have been cut too much already but in a government bureaucracy I have no doubt that we can afford 10% in cuts whether is in staff or becoming more efficient with the tax dollars being spent.

These cuts would net $20 million in cost savings with the current projection of a $209 million dollar budget. Granted this would still leave the county and $10 million dollar short fall, but that would be much more manageable to deal with than the current amount.

The other way I would bridge the gap is raise the sales tax .15 percent for no longer than five years to cover the gap. While I strongly oppose any raises in taxes this makes the most sense because in would impact anyone who buys goods and services in Hamilton County. This tax I would only allow it to be used to make up the budget gap after the 10% cuts that I recommended earlier. Any leftover would go back to the people in the form of a property tax rebate.

While this would only be a short-term solution, our county government has to look long term now. Hamilton County, like the city of Cincinnati needs to come up with a way to increase our tax base.  The county must do this by lowing taxes on properties to increase population of the county. Much of the counties tax revenue problem stems from residents leaving the county for other outlying counties in the area. While the county property tax isn’t the only solution, favorable property tax laws for residents can go a long way to attracting people to the county.

The second recommendation I have is on the side of job growth. We have to bring jobs back to Hamilton County. Ohio already struggles with how unfriendly it is for business and because of all the municipalities that can be involved in setting up business in Hamilton County it is even a more bureaucratic than most counties in the region. To solve this problem we need to one uniform way of doing business in Hamilton County. Lets cut the red tape and all the excess fees it takes to run a business in Hamilton County and make it simple and desirable to do business here. We have seen it time and again when government gets out of the way of business then business profit, jobs are created, and the economy will flourish.

To accomplish this I would recommend that all of the cities, townships, villages…etc, come together to develop on set of laws and regulations that will be enforced county wide, no exceptions and no additions or subtracts.  This county’s main goal should be to be the most business friendly environment in the state and the region to increase the tax base while lowering taxes for both business and those that live in Hamilton County.