Guest article by “funnelcake”

Would you like to comment on the proposed Street Car system for the City of Cincinnati?  According to the head tag line for the comment section “Cincinnati officials announced a financial plan Tuesday for a proposed $102 million streetcar system connecting downtown to Over-the-Rhine. The city would contribute $36 million, with the rest from other sources.”
source

Wowzers!  The city is getting another free ride just like they did with the Fountain Square project.  This time they put up $36 million & they get $66 million elsewhere.  What a deal!  Free money & investment for the city… again!

I don’t know of a red blooded Cincinnatian who wouldn’t jump on that kind of investment ratio.  I bet they get a lot of positive comments!

This other article spells it out a little bit better:

$25 Million (City Capital Improvements Fund) - City Expense
$25 Million (tax increment financing bonds) - City Expense again
$11 Million (Proceeds from Blue Ash Airport) - City Expense yet again
$20 Million (Public/private partnerships) - Duke Energy is going to pay for it?  What is the Public part of this partnership and how much will the Public be indirectly pay for this partnership?
$11 Million (Private contributions) - Donations & naming rights
$10 Million (Ohio capital grant)

So of this, the City would really be directly responsible for $61 million (as opposed to $36 million) The $20 Million “Public/private partnerships” is a toss up.  Who knows what kind of deal would get inked.  Maybe Duke gets to own the tram line & all proceeds from the Streetcar fares for the next 100 years.  And all of this of course excludes cost over runs.

They question is what number will be spun in the future?  With it be $36 million?  $25 million?  Or the current true (we think) $61 million?  Historically the media & “city officials” likes to pretend that tax financed bonds don’t count as real city money.  It still appears to be true today.

Who is currently responsible for the $36 million dollar lie?  The first comment link attributes this to “city officials”.  In making my votes for City Council this election, I want to know which council members are trying to lie to their citizens to make a budget sound better than it really is.

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