Tag: Politics

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New provision to Ohio transportation budget represents “unprecedented attack” on Cincinnati Streetcar

In an unprecedented action, Ohio Senate Transportation Committee Chair Tom Patton allowed a provision to be introduced to the latest amendment of the state’s biennial transportation budget that would “prohibit state or federal funds appropriated by the state from being used for the Cincinnati streetcar project.”

The action comes on the heels of recent news that newly elected Governor John Kasich (R) plans to strip the project of approximately $52 million in state appropriated funds. Such an action would go directly against the state’s laws and proceedings for appropriating state and federal transportation dollars, and could be subject to legal action from the City of Cincinnati.

“So if you suddenly don’t like the process established by law that has worked well for 14 years under Democrats and Republicans, you change the process,” said Ken Prendergast, executive director of All Aboard Ohio. “This is like saying we didn’t like who won the Super Bowl, so we’re going to re-write the record books.”

Provision SC-0257-1 was approved out of committee Tuesday evening as part of an omnibus amendment, and will then go to the full Senate and House. The omnibus amendment, according to Prendergast, could then either be accepted as is, or be assigned to a conference committee if the House finds the bill substantially different from the version it passed last week that did not include the anti-streetcar provision.

The unprecedented attack against the Cincinnati Streetcar, the Ohio Department of Transportation’s (ODOT) highest-ranking transportation project pending anywhere in the state, further exemplifies the cavalier attitude of the newly elected governor and Ohio General Assembly.

Prendergast notes that the Cincinnati Streetcar was ranked as the state’s top transportation project based on economic development, cost-effectiveness and environmental impact criteria by the Transportation Review Advisory Council (TRAC), a non-political review board established by state law in 1997. The TRAC, he says, was created, urged in part by then and current ODOT Director Jerry Wray, to remove politics from the state’s transportation project selection process.

Previous actions by the TRAC include unanimous votes in support of the funding appropriations for the $128 million Cincinnati Streetcar project.

“These are not state funds, but state-administered transportation funds. If they don’t go to the streetcar, they will go to a lower-ranking road project,” Prendergast emphasized. “If state officials really want to save taxpayers’ money, they should cut from the bottom-ranked projects, not from the top.”

Prendergast went on to say that in his nearly 30 years of transportation advocacy that he has never seen such a blatant attempt to discriminate against rail projects in such a manner. And he points to a November 2009 vote in Cincinnati that defeated a measure that would have singled out rail projects for public votes by 55 to 45 percent.

“As young Ohioans flee to vibrant cities that offer transportation choices, as Baby Boomers face a future of house arrest without options to cars, and as all Ohioans face immobility from worsening global petroleum constraints, this amendment by the Ohio General Assembly to punish a very specific transportation project is worse than counter-intuitive. It’s downright mean.”

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Cincinnati Park Board implements innovative budget-saving measures to spare cuts

City governments across the United States have been struggling with budget deficits for years as the economy has struggled. Those struggles will more than likely worsen for Cincinnati, and other cities in Ohio, as they deal with a 50 percent reduction in state support.

Parks are one of those locally impacted items. For 2011, the Cincinnati Park Board saw a 34 percent cut to its general fund as city officials looked to close a budget deficit. Fortunately, park officials were able to avoid closing any parks and maintain its current number of employees through a variety of innovative measures.

“A 34 percent cut in the park board’s budget is fairly typical for what we are seeing around the country – perhaps even worse than average,” stated Peter Harnik, Director, Center for City Park Excellence with the Trust for Public Land.

One of the innovative measures employed by the Cincinnati Park Board is a new program that is utilizing student labor from the University of Cincinnati. The 75 students, park officials say, are able to gain career-related experience while the park board maintains its service levels. The students’ wages are 75 percent paid through a federal grant, while the park board picks up the remaining amount.

“Substituting partially-federally-subsidized student workers for traditional park workers is certainly a creative approach to a very bad problem,” Harnik said.

The director of the Center for City Park Excellence also expressed concern that the 75 student positions might be replacing higher-paid, and potentially, family-supporting workers.

“Nevertheless, from the parks’ perspective, it’s a very good solution, and the agency’s creativity and can-do attitude is to be applauded.”

To help deal with budget cuts the park board is also implementing new trash collection policies, implementing the national Leave No Trace program, and reducing operations at some parks throughout the city.

Piatt Park photograph by UrbanCincy contributor Thadd Fiala.

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Business Development News Politics Transportation

Cincinnati could sue state if governor pulls streetcar funding

Streetcar supporters were outraged when they heard Ohio Governor John Kasich (R) was considering pulling as much as $52 million in state support from the Cincinnati Streetcar project. Such of move would have left the project with a financing gap and would have resulted in reduced scope or delayed construction. But according to some, a move of that nature by the governor may not carry legal merit.

The premise for cutting the funds for Cincinnati’s modern streetcar system is that the State of Ohio is facing an $8 billion budget deficit, and state leaders are examining many ways to cut that figure. But according to Ken Prendergast, executive director of All Aboard Ohio, those funds awarded to the Cincinnati Streetcar would not actually impact the state budget.

“The funds to be cut are federal transportation dollars. If they are not used on the streetcar, then they would be used on a transportation project with a lower TRAC ranking,” Prendergast explained. “In other words, Kasich is giving Cincinnati a false choice.”

Prendergast is referring to the Ohio Department of Transportation’s (ODOT) Transportation Review Advisory Council (TRAC) which was first established in 1998 to depoliticize the allocation of transportation funding. TRAC awards money based on a merit score, and the Cincinnati Streetcar earned 84 points which placed it as the highest-scoring transportation project in the entire state.

Local officials close to the Cincinnati Streetcar project believe Governor Kasich is attempting to strip the funds from the streetcar and reallocated them to the $2 billion Brent Spence Bridge replacement which scored a paltry 44 points on TRAC’s transportation list. The other reality is that the money could go to the Eastern Corridor plan which had three components scoring 34, 39 and 48 points – all well below the Cincinnati Streetcar’s state-leading 84 points.

“Our governor is making a false argument that pulling back this federal money will save the state money,” said Prendergast. “The streetcar funding has nothing to do with the state’s deficit. If it is not used for the streetcar, it will go to a lower-ranked Ohio road project.”

Two separate studies estimate that the modern streetcar project will stimulate approximately $1.5 billion of new investment in Downtown and Over-the-Rhine, or roughly 15 times the cost of the streetcar project. The Cincinnati Streetcar’s second phase Uptown is also expected to make large economic impacts, and has scored a 71.5 points on TRAC’s list.

“Why is our governor against redeveloping Cincinnati’s downtown and Over-the-Rhine areas with the streetcar? Steel rails offer a far superior path to jobs and growth and clean air than yet another asphalt road pitted with potholes,” concluded Jack Shaner, deputy director of the Ohio Environmental Council.

According to Prendergast, the end result may be a another legal battle for the controversial governor. He says that at attempt to move the funds from the streetcar to another, lower-ranking transportation project, that Cincinnati officials would have legal grounds to sue the state for not following its own criteria in awarding federal transportation funds.

Modern Streetcar in Cincinnati photograph by UrbanCincy contributor Thadd Fiala.

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Cincinnati region grows to more than 2.2 million people

Complete 2010 Census counts are to be released later this week for Ohio, but in advance of that new 2010 population estimates were released by the bureau yesterday. The county-level data for the Cincinnati metropolitan statistical area (MSA) shows anemic population growth for the now 2.2 million person region.

Of counties with more than 50,000 people, the fastest growers were Boone County, KY (40%), Warren County, OH (34.7%) and Clermont County, OH (10%). Over the last decade the region’s largest county saw its population increased by just more than 10,000 people giving Hamilton County, OH an estimated population of 855,340 in July 2010.

No county in the 17-county region studied experienced a population loss during the time frame, and over the ten-year period the region grew by an estimated 8.2 percent adding more than 170,000 people.

These estimates come out just days before Ohio’s full 2010 Census count is to be released. Other cities has felt sobering results from those hard counts that came in notably lower than the annual estimates the U.S. Census Bureau had been releasing.

Whether these estimates turn out to be accurate or not, a trend one can note is that the counties adding the most people are those close to the core of the region. While lower percentage increases exist in the region’s largest counties, they continue to add population to their base.

Leading up to the 2010 Census counts, Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory had been a prominent spokesperson for cities suggesting undercounts within inner cities and first-ring suburbs. Those efforts led to several population revisions for Cincinnati and area municipalities, but in a matter of days we will find out whether the mayor’s goal of counting 378,259 people in the City of Cincinnati will hold up or not.

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Mayor Mallory: Welcome to Cincinnati

The City of Cincinnati has put together a new video that welcomes people and businesses to Cincinnati. The video comes during a time at which city leaders are trying to figure out how to brand the city and region.

Within the video, Mayor Mark Mallory talks about Cincinnati’s vibrant and walkable downtown, The Banks development, recent progress in Over-the-Rhine, the arts, the future Horseshoe Casino and Cincinnati Streetcar.

So, the question begs to be asked. How do you think this message brands Cincinnati, and does it do so successfully? The next question is, whether or not this is even the image and brand the city should be promoting?