Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati

Does Todd Portune have a secret weapon for the upcoming campaign season?  Something to fulfill his end of an alleged deal to deliver a new jail to the Hamilton County Republicans?  Does it involve 6600 Paddock Road?  Is there a strategy to increase jail capacity without a great big jail tax?

Word on the street has it that Portune will be coming back with another version of the jail, this time without an associated tax increase—figuring that the COAST and Libertarian element of last year’s anti-jail campaign will have nothing to say if the thing doesn’t wage higher taxes. 

With the old coalition split in half—leaving, perhaps, the NAACP, CPA, and the Green Party to oppose the jail—Portune would have a much easier time getting his way.  Sure, he might have some opposition from area residents with their NIMBY complaints, but those might be easier to defeat than a well-organized campaign against a tax that was bound to be unpopular anyway.

So let’s put the rumors to rest.  I just sent this:

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