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Speaker 1: eighty nine Right now sixty six. Time for Chuck Ingram
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Speaker 2: and again mostel at of forty two. Chuck Ingram on
Speaker 2: fifty five KRC the talk station.
Speaker 1: It's seven forty here fifty five KRC DE Talk station.
Speaker 1: Brian Town is always happy to welcome to the FTY
Speaker 1: five CARC Morning Show. You find her writing and reporting
Speaker 1: in The Cincinni Inquiry, which you can find at Cincinnati
Speaker 1: dot com. I got my online subscription there and I
Speaker 1: check it out every single day. Welcome back, Sharon Coolidge.
Speaker 1: It's all. It is a pleasure to have you on
Speaker 1: the program.
Speaker 3: Good morning.
Speaker 1: I'm actually looking more forward to topic too, because I
Speaker 1: just find it so comical about the six hundred million
Speaker 1: dollars fund to help residents of the city with their
Speaker 1: property taxes. We'll get to that, but let's start with
Speaker 1: what happened with Mercy Health and this this Bond Hill facility.
Speaker 1: They got a tax incentive package back in twenty fourteen
Speaker 1: the Bonds Accors Mercy Health System did to go into
Speaker 1: this Bond Hill building. Was supposed to boost the neighborhood
Speaker 1: high paying jobs. Of course, earnings taxes is where sixty
Speaker 1: four percent of the city's budget comes from. So all
Speaker 1: that sounds great, but then they didn't end up using it.
Speaker 1: So the city is now saying, hey, we gave you
Speaker 1: this incentive package, you owe us seven million dollars because
Speaker 1: you didn't make good on your obligations. My first question
Speaker 1: was what happened to the site and why didn't it
Speaker 1: work out?
Speaker 3: We know, not go into it building. It wasn't some
Speaker 3: building that was sitting there. It was taking the old
Speaker 3: like movie theater site blighted. You know what are we
Speaker 3: going to do with this and building this beautiful news
Speaker 3: structure and then filling it with jobs. Right, It sounded
Speaker 3: like a dream absolutely, And you know what, honestly, I
Speaker 3: have to say it was working all the way up
Speaker 3: until COVID. It was growing that it was a bustling place.
Speaker 3: But once COVID hit, the world changed. And they're saying it,
Speaker 3: and they set it in twenty twenty one in a
Speaker 3: letter to former Mayor John Cranley, We're going to stay remote.
Speaker 3: It's best for our company. That's what we're doing. The
Speaker 3: city didn't really, I don't know, pay that much attention
Speaker 3: back in twenty twenty one, but they said it definitively
Speaker 3: in a letter, We're going to work remote now and
Speaker 3: that's what they did. Well, they're remote.
Speaker 1: Well that was I mean, Sharon, back then, that was
Speaker 1: in everybody's best interest because if you're working from home,
Speaker 1: you're not spreading the evil COVID around, So there's no
Speaker 1: way you could push back on something like that when
Speaker 1: really that was kind of what was being asked of
Speaker 1: the public generally speaking, across the board in any given industry, no,
Speaker 1: one hundred percent.
Speaker 3: I mean the world has changed, and I think the
Speaker 3: city's really trying to grapple with that.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: I think we're seeing this in more and more places.
Speaker 3: I mean, the Ge building is not living up to
Speaker 3: its promise, and then we see in bond Hill the
Speaker 3: same thing, these two big new buildings, and then you're
Speaker 3: going to redo the SAX building and that sounds great.
Speaker 3: Pay Courts is going to be a main tenant there.
Speaker 2: They're remote.
Speaker 3: Nobody's even pretending the pay courts filled with the bunch
Speaker 3: of jobs that are paying earning taxes. They're I mean,
Speaker 3: they're like, this is a meeting space and it is.
Speaker 3: They're being upfront with what this plan looks like. But
Speaker 3: it's not some company coming in with all these shops
Speaker 3: that pay earning tax.
Speaker 1: Well, I know what you do to recover they in
Speaker 1: order to recover that ready, the earnings taxes that you're
Speaker 1: not getting from the likes of pay Corps and Mercy Health,
Speaker 1: just raise the earnings tax on everybody else to make
Speaker 1: up for the loss. Have to have.
Speaker 3: Products, not your idea. That's the futures commissioned idea. That's
Speaker 3: they're not trying to take credit for that well, so
Speaker 3: you know, we're not happy that this year. This was
Speaker 3: a very big conversation behind the scenes, and I was
Speaker 3: prepped and ready as if, really, what is this going
Speaker 3: to look like? What is this vote going to look like?
Speaker 3: And in the end they felt like they didn't have
Speaker 3: enough time to get it done. I mean, I'm just
Speaker 3: going to say it. They would have really looked like hypocrites.
Speaker 3: They were like the budget process was too fast, but
Speaker 3: then they were like, oh, well, maybe we'll do an
Speaker 3: earnings tax. You're like, you're seconds from having to vote
Speaker 3: on this, Like, why an't you going to talk about
Speaker 3: it and tell the public about it? There just was
Speaker 3: not enough time This year. They're owning it though, and
Speaker 3: I don't know if it has enough support from COW
Speaker 3: So I think there's like a picture like a sigh
Speaker 3: of relief. We don't have to say how we feel
Speaker 3: about this right now, but this is definitely going to
Speaker 3: be a conversation. I think next year.
Speaker 1: I would say, do you see this evolving into litigation?
Speaker 1: Because I'm guessing Mercy Health has said no, I mean,
Speaker 1: this was out of our hands, and person.
Speaker 3: Health actually said yes once we really started writing about it.
Speaker 3: Mercy Health came out and said definitively that they were
Speaker 3: going to pay it. Oh, which is really saying something
Speaker 3: because ge has like this huge settlement package that was
Speaker 3: kind of cut behind the scenes and I think was
Speaker 3: a forty three million, but it was like a lot
Speaker 3: of things that had value attached to it. Nobody wrote
Speaker 3: that kind of check to the city. It was like, Oh,
Speaker 3: we're donating an old engine to Cincinnati State so they
Speaker 3: can study and everything. I don't hate that, okay, but
Speaker 3: it's a value to ten million dollars. We're going to
Speaker 3: do these volunteer hours, and it's you know, value, it's
Speaker 3: such and such. Like. The only real hard cash seemed
Speaker 3: to come out of that was two hundred and fifty
Speaker 3: thousand dollars for the port to do a study about
Speaker 3: what should happen next with like the big parcel of
Speaker 3: land next to pay Horse Stadium. So that really wasn't
Speaker 3: a cash, but it does seem like and we're going
Speaker 3: to find out on Thursday. There's a big meeting between
Speaker 3: Mercy and you know, the Development Department and the city
Speaker 3: manager and what's going to come out of that. Now
Speaker 3: Mercy said they're going to pay it, but I don't
Speaker 3: say anything's a don unentail till it's actually.
Speaker 1: A done yell well, and in the final analysis pay
Speaker 1: it or not, maybe they see that they're obligated to
Speaker 1: do it. That's fine, settle it like ge did. Whatever
Speaker 1: that happens. Those jobs are not going to be in
Speaker 1: the city of Cincinnati, basically, that's they're not going to
Speaker 1: be there.
Speaker 3: No, they're not. And that is like, is it really
Speaker 3: the changing? That's how much it's changing that we can't
Speaker 3: I mean, Emver was like, oh, Cincinnati is an amazing
Speaker 3: like we're on the upswing and everything's great, and I
Speaker 3: do believe that. But then where there's jobs don't want
Speaker 3: to come here. Some people will still work in person,
Speaker 3: and it's like, really, what does that look like? And
Speaker 3: the people you're electing next year is a big electioneer,
Speaker 3: the mayor and city council. And I don't know what
Speaker 3: those races look like because I don't have like a
Speaker 3: tenth person who said they're running or someone who's running
Speaker 3: against the mayor. But people really do need to learn
Speaker 3: they're looking at who they're voting for. Think this is
Speaker 3: a pivot point, and the Futures Commission did not sugarcoat
Speaker 3: that these business leaders are like, some changes have got
Speaker 3: to be made here, and are these the people who
Speaker 3: can make the changes? People have to kind of decide
Speaker 3: this is the path forwards everything we're hearing about.
Speaker 1: And we will count on the likes of Sharon Coolidge
Speaker 1: others at the enquire and local reporting to give us
Speaker 1: as much information on those candidates as possible. So maybe
Speaker 1: we can write the ship would consider me, would make
Speaker 1: appropriate decisions when we're voting. Sharon, let's pause. I want
Speaker 1: to bring you back talk about the other issue, which
Speaker 1: I think is I just keep laughing about it. Six
Speaker 1: hundred million dollars taken from the railroad pot of money
Speaker 1: to provide property tax relief for Cincinnatians, and Cincinnati residents
Speaker 1: may get a chance to vote on just that. Lean
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Speaker 1: llc dot com. Fifty five KRC quick Weether sunny in
Speaker 1: eighty seven today, over night, clear in sixty four, sonny
Speaker 1: in eighty eight Tomorrow, overnight partly cloudy, chance of showers
Speaker 1: of storm sixty four. Partly sunny on Friday with chances
Speaker 1: of showers of storms eighty nine. Right now sixty six
Speaker 1: traffic time from.
Speaker 2: The UCL Traffic Center. Nearly sixty percent of Americans waiting
Speaker 2: on an organ transplanner from multicultural communities give the gift
Speaker 2: of life. Sign up to be an organ downer. Today,
Speaker 2: heavy traffic continues to build southbound seventy five and then
Speaker 2: out of Lachland northbound seventy five and an extra fifteen
Speaker 2: minutes between Florence and downtown inbound seventy four. Now post
Speaker 2: slow go above Montana chuck Ingram Mount fifty five KRC.
Speaker 3: The talk station.
Speaker 1: If Kercytalxation. Brian Thomas with the Cincinnion inquires Sharon Coolidge,
Speaker 1: pivoting over to the railroad money being used for property
Speaker 1: tax relief. Of course, everybody is reeling from the massive
Speaker 1: increase in property tax is brought about by Yes, a
Speaker 1: corollary of COVID and the property values increasing. Many people
Speaker 1: can't handle it. Many seniors are on fixed incomes and
Speaker 1: the property tax bill goes up three by thirty percent,
Speaker 1: and they are where am I going to get this money?
Speaker 1: Entered Tom Brinkman, former Republican state representative who has proposed
Speaker 1: a ballot initiative. Signatures being circulated as we speak. To
Speaker 1: take six hundred dollars out of the one point six
Speaker 1: billion dollar railroad fund from the stupid sale of the
Speaker 1: railroad and put that into a separate fund to generate
Speaker 1: revenue to help Cincinnati property owners of all sizes, shaped stripes,
Speaker 1: and income values to get some property tax relief. Sharon,
Speaker 1: can you imagine being able to vote to have money
Speaker 1: to get money to lower your taxes? This sounds like
Speaker 1: it probably would pass if they get enough signatures. What's
Speaker 1: your take on this one.
Speaker 3: I definitely think there's some concern behind the scenes. No
Speaker 3: one's really saying anything. Everyone's waiting. I mean, this is
Speaker 3: a very tight timeline to get the petitions, the valid signatures.
Speaker 3: I think people are kind of waiting.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 3: You know. Some of the public talking points are like,
Speaker 3: of course people want to pay, they would want to
Speaker 3: pay for all these services. I'm like, what does that
Speaker 3: ballot language look like? I was like that, do you
Speaker 3: want someone in the city to pay your property taxes?
Speaker 3: That does seem like a yes to me? Not yeah,
Speaker 3: I agree with you there.
Speaker 1: And not because I you know, from a matter of
Speaker 1: you know, policy standpoint or my political leanings, think it's
Speaker 1: you know, it's like, well, people can put their hand
Speaker 1: in a cookie jar. They're got to put their hand
Speaker 1: in a cookie jar. And I don't know that necessarily
Speaker 1: that's the right thing to do, but this is I mean,
Speaker 1: Tom Brigman was not in favor of the sale, and
Speaker 1: he knows that people are suffering and struggling, and this
Speaker 1: is a mechanism for people to take money away from
Speaker 1: the seemingly limitless number of things that they could use
Speaker 1: the money from that fund to go to, and force
Speaker 1: them to give relief to the actual residents of the city.
Speaker 1: I just I think it's a wonderful, you know, a
Speaker 1: work of I don't know, brinksmanship. If I can may
Speaker 1: make so loose with this with the phrase, you know,
Speaker 1: I think.
Speaker 3: There's probably there's a lot of pieces to this one,
Speaker 3: but he certainly has hit a nerve with what people
Speaker 3: are thinking and feeling in the city. And I think
Speaker 3: that's super important that like, this is the conversation that
Speaker 3: people are feeling pinched. They can't afford to buy a house,
Speaker 3: the real estate market is kind of stagnant, Like what
Speaker 3: what does middle class look like in Cincinnati? And he's
Speaker 3: really hit upon something where people are like, this is
Speaker 3: what people are talking about in their real lives and
Speaker 3: worried about and so it is an interesting conversation. Can
Speaker 3: they do it? It's hard to tell because it has
Speaker 3: like that state component, and everything is going to take
Speaker 3: a lot more vetting, but it certainly seems like a
Speaker 3: conversation that the actual citizens want to have.
Speaker 1: Themselves well and without Norfolk Southern's money involved in something
Speaker 1: like this. Do you think there's going to be any
Speaker 1: sort of funded opposition campaign? I mean, I think the
Speaker 1: issue or the idea itself is about an issative sort
Speaker 1: of sells itself under the circumstances. So will there be
Speaker 1: a well funded or well organized opposition to doing this?
Speaker 1: I guess?
Speaker 3: Well, here's the thing, so I'm not nothing is a
Speaker 3: six million dollar campaign. Nothing. That is how much money
Speaker 3: Norfolks un are and put into the campaign to pass
Speaker 3: that railroad sale. Yeah, six million dollars of their own money.
Speaker 3: And you know they didn't make any bones about it,
Speaker 3: like the most I can't nothing ever comes close to that,
Speaker 3: So it certainly not that. No, it's a tight timeline.
Speaker 3: It's going to be hard to cut through. I don't
Speaker 3: know if you've noticed there seems to be a presidential
Speaker 3: election going on. And that is the news cycle that
Speaker 3: this high. It's not like a city level news cycle, right.
Speaker 3: It is people paying attention to the presidential race. It's
Speaker 3: going to be very hard to cut through and make
Speaker 3: the case either way. It's going to be really left.
Speaker 3: I think the citizens they're going to look at the
Speaker 3: bat language on the ballot and be like, what is this? Okay?
Speaker 3: And it wouldn't be on the sample now that we
Speaker 3: can't discount the sample ballot. Of course there will be
Speaker 3: a sample ballot. I can't if this is on the ballot,
Speaker 3: I would count on, you know, the sample ballot saying
Speaker 3: no vote no. Uh. And I think the sample ballot
Speaker 3: really is going to carry the day in so many cases. Yeah,
Speaker 3: But do people look at this and like, hold, hold up,
Speaker 3: do I want someone else to pay my property taxes?
Speaker 1: Well, and you know property taxes and whether you can
Speaker 1: afford them or not. I'm sorry. That does not fall
Speaker 1: into a political category that hits people equally regardless of
Speaker 1: whether they belonged to the Republican or Democrat party, So
Speaker 1: that maybe the Democrats would put vote no on the
Speaker 1: blue none the blues slip maybe does not necessarily represent
Speaker 1: the interest or the beliefs of the Democrats in the
Speaker 1: city of Cincinnati since they got to pay the.
Speaker 3: Bill, which is a real thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's really a real thing.
Speaker 3: Say, oh, the Democrat a Republican prosecutor share for all
Speaker 3: these races, and like you maybe like somebody who don't
Speaker 3: like somebody, but you have to get out your checkbook
Speaker 3: and write a text to your property taxes. You don't
Speaker 3: have a choice. People, I there's a real fear, Like
Speaker 3: I have seen people cry about this. Yes, there's a
Speaker 3: real fear. It's you know, it's it's kind of scary
Speaker 3: to be honest.
Speaker 1: Well, keep writing about it and I'll keep my popcorn
Speaker 1: out because this one I can't vote on it. It doesn't
Speaker 1: impact me. I don't live in the city, but I
Speaker 1: certainly have a profound interest in this and how it unfolds.
Speaker 1: So Sharon Coolidge will be looking for the reporting onto
Speaker 1: the enquire Cincinnati dot coms where you find sharing and
Speaker 1: the crew, and I appreciate you coming on the program
Speaker 1: and enlightening us as well as keeping up on the reporting. Sharon,
Speaker 1: I look forward to talking to you again real soon.
Speaker 1: Thanks for having anytime. Seven fifty seven stick around. Mike
Speaker 1: we're gonna have some fun. Off top of the our
Speaker 1: news the German are those German guys with an event
Speaker 1: called Canteen Beer Garden monthly keg tapping that plus Judge
Speaker 1: entited of Paul Tano at eight thirty to be right
Speaker 1: back your campaign bitstop on the road to November.
Speaker 2: There's so much going on, I gotta check in a
Speaker 2: few times a day.
Speaker 1: Fifty five krs the talk station