The 9/8 Debate
Explore Cincinnati has posted audio of a debate on what, I guess, is now Issue 9 - the "added red tape, added costs, obstacles and socially divisive confusing rhetoric generation" amendment proposed by COA T, the Cincinnati NAACP, the south west Ohio Libertarians, the southwest Ohio Green Party and probably some other unelectables under the umbrella of We Demand a Vote (because we didn't like the way the last one turned out).
The debate can be heard here.
The debaters were Bob Maly & Mark Miller.
One of the issues raised was the cost of special elections. A special city wide election costs the taxpayers about $500,000 dollars. That's more than a dollar a person.
What neither debater mentioned was the additional cost in both time and materials for campaigning & the cost of people to take the time to study the issues & get to the polls.
Neither side mentioned that the proponents of this expensive amendment get funding from members outside of the city, the county and even the state. These people from out of town will be represented in a local issue without paying local property taxes and only paying a fraction of the income taxes paid by true city residents.
Another issue both sides fell flat on was how to find out about the issues.
CitiCable broadcasts city council meetings, committee meetings and county commissioner meetings as well as library boards, health commission & police complaint board meetings. Never a dull moment. The city archives full council meetings on their website in genuine Micro$oft Windoze Media format. If you never paid Micro$oft for the right to play their proprietary format but have paid to use Apple's proprietary OS you can still watch with the Flip4Mac plug in.
Watching the meetings on cable, I have been aware of how the streetcar plan has progressed over the last 3 years. As Mr Miller attested, these things take time and they already have. Why he feels that delaying the inevitable is somehow a good thing is odd, to say the least. On top of that, in the countless meetings discussing the topic, the WDaV cartel of unelectables has been notoriously absent from the public meetings. If they have attended, they kept their mouths shut as the overwhelming number of people discussing the subject have been supportive.
I could go on some more on the flaws of the WDaV position but I will be hammering away at that more over the next 7-8 weeks. For now I will just leave it with taking on where I believe both sides dropped the ball.
For more info on the topic:
City of Cincinnati
Cincy Streetcar
ProTransit
the Phony Coney
and over 250 pages & 3 years of discussion on the subject, click here
NO ON 9