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•Nick Lachey: “I have never supported George W. Bush.” (2007)
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Monday, November 02, 2009
Three Reasons to Vote ‘No on 9′
Posted by Jason Haap
Photo courtesy of here.
Guest post by Brad Thomas.
1. Deception — proponents of Issue 9 want Cincinnatians to believe that we’re voting on the Streetcar. Not true. We’re voting a Charter Amendment that, if passed, would prevent our City from expending any monies for right-of-way acquisition or construction improvements for any form of passenger rail without first holding an election for each and every expenditure regardless of dollar amount. The proponents won’t tell you that this Amendment would negatively impact Union Terminal (Amtrak train is passenger rail), the Cincinnati Zoo (Safari Train is passenger rail), and would require that Cincinnati hold an election before we could participate in the State of Ohio’s High Speed Rail project connecting Cleveland-Columbus-Cincinnati.
2. Anti-Commerce, Economically Uncompetitive — if passed, Cincinnati will be the ONLY City in America (sad, but true) that amended its version of the Constitution with this restrictive language. At a time when the Federal and State governments are pursuing major passenger rail projects and allocating dollars that can only be used for transportation, Cincinnati will be an uncompetitive position. Do we really think the Feds and State will wait for Cincinnati to hold an election? OKI recently expressed their concern relative to delays and the impact on timely funding applications.
3. Massive, Broad Based Support for ‘No on 9′ — when is the last time all business groups (Chambers, 3CDC, Cincinnati Business Committee), Unions (AFL-CIO, Pipefitters, etc), good governance (League of Women Voters, Cincinnatus), Republicans (Sen. Seitz, Council Member Ghiz, Former Sen.’s Aronoff & Finan, Bill Cunningham, etc), Democrats (Governor Strickland, Mayor Mallory, Sen. Eric Kearney), Charterites (Council Members Bortz & Qualls), Judges (Mark Painter, Nathaniel Jones)…all were in agreement? No on 9.
It’s important that voters understand the truth about the issue 9.
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02 Nov 2009 at 11:26 pm | #
1. The proposed C-C-C highspeed rail plan is a federal and state project. Issue 9 only deals with city expenditures on the trolley. No requirements exist mandating city money to be spent on federal rail projects.
2. The pursuit of rail dollars offered by the federal government will be minuscule in comparison to what the states will have to pony up for the total costs. Good government leaders should want input from the citizens prior to spending hundreds of billions of the citizens’ money on any project, especially of that magnitude.
3. The pro trolley parties mentioned in the article stand to gain from its passage. They love to see city money being taken from the masses and given to the privileged, and the politicians mentioned will be the key ones to re appropriate such funds to those interested parties.
What was the point of the author regurgitating old talking points and passing it off as an analytical piece of journalism? Why not throw the trolley into the arena of capitalism and see if their claims hold true? Let the developers finance this project and then sit back and reap the profits. Where are the venture capitalists willing to finance this sure bet for growth here in the city? It sounds to me like its just another attempt by corporate welfare kings to socialize risks while privatizing profits.
VOTE YES ON 9!!!
03 Nov 2009 at 07:11 am | #
VOTE NO ON 9!!!!
IF C O A S T SUPPORTS IT THAT ALONE THE A REASON TO VOTE AGAINST IT!!!
Also where the Trolley might be stupid. nothing is as low and disgusting as COAST and the NAACP selling it as the Trolley Petition when in deed there was so muck more to the ussue and ignoring that and getting people to sign thier petition without explaining it all. It should never be on the ballot in the first place.
NO ON 9!
NO ON WENSTRUP!
NO ON WINBURN
YES ON HAAP!
YES ON CASINOS!
03 Nov 2009 at 07:36 am | #
#3 Um, 2 years ago Issue 27 and the Super Sized Jail Tax.
03 Nov 2009 at 06:31 pm | #
For many years I have worked my poll as a volunteer handing out stuff. I have been by myself- Even during the presidental election- I only had McCain/Palin people for about an hour and they were from Wisconsin and they left because they got bored.
This year- The Wenstrup drones were there, The Winburn Clones were there, And the Anti-Casinos were there.
Good thing I had to work today- because working 14 hours with these people- I would have needed something to drink stronger than a coke or a pepsi.
They were just flocking all over people as you parked your car at the school. It was terrible. They were not friendly, they were being rude and shoving stuff at me, even though I said, no thank you, I have my mind made up. They flat out asked me who I was voting for, I told them, I don’t discuss that. They told me I was being rude and that I HAD to tell them. I told them, As an American, I did not have to discuss my vote with anyone and to please move. I was then called Anti-American. I then asked them- how do you know I am not voting FOR your candidate and don’t want to discuss it in public? You are being rude. Voting is personal decission, and I am someone who doesn’t discuss politics on the sidewalk with strangers, I am sorry. They then backed off.
I just kept walking to get to the 50 feet zone- away from them.
Welcome to the NEW AMERICA!
04 Nov 2009 at 01:26 am | #
...they’re supposed to stay 100’ back - outside the flags. You showed more restraint than I would have.
04 Nov 2009 at 08:14 pm | #
Justice,
This is an absolute lie.
“1. The proposed C-C-C highspeed rail plan is a federal and state project. Issue 9 only deals with city expenditures on the trolley. No requirements exist mandating city money to be spent on federal rail projects.”
Every Federal and State project of the scale of the 3C rail line or Eastern Corridor rail lines requires the city to pay a piece of the bill. The Feds and State never do any transportation project for a city for free. The city will be responsible for acquiring the land for the terminals and probably the construction and design of the terminals. The Feds and State might offer to pay for 50% of the terminal cost, but never the entire bill. They always require local governments to pay a piece of the bill to prove they are interested in the project, and save the State and Feds some money. If Cincinnati doesn’t bring 50%, they will spend the money on a similar project in a city that will.
The people who wrote Issue 9 knew this fact, but hoped to deceive the public. It was a nice attempt to stop any and all rail projects in Cincinnati. Luckily the public saw through the issue and voted correctly.