Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Raise Taxes to build The Streetcar



Dear fellow tax hikers, we are glad to be back in Cincinnati!  We have spent the last 3 weeks in Columbus lobbying furiously for higher taxes, more union power, and to save our beloved Cincinnati streetcar.  Many of us streetcar supporters are crushed by the wave of bad news we have suffered in the last week.  Consider the horrible news we have had to endure:

- Jeff Berding announced his opposition to the project and selected a Republican to replace him on Council
- The Enquirer editorialized in favor of putting the project on hold
- Charlie Winburn will be making a motion to do just that
- Governor John Kasich and the TRAC group which allocates transportation funding has recommended that the state defund our streetcar!
- Worst of all, the State Senate even passed legislation prohibiting any federal or state money from going to the streetcar!  It is expected the House will pass this and it will be signed by our terrible Governor.

This is all terrible news for us, the home of the pro-streetcar movement.  If we want a streetcar, we're going to have to pay for it ourselves and it's completely unfair.  However we believe we are up to the challenge.

We support an immediate tax increase to build an ambitious new $500 million streetcar system throughout Cincinnati.  We will continue with our plans to build a line north to uptown all the way up to Bond Hill.  We will build the next line east through Walnut Hills, Hyde Park, Mt. Lookout, and Mt. Washington.  Then we will build another line west through Price Hill and Westwood to stop at the border of Cheviot, where it can connect to the new Cheviot streetcar that their fine city will build.  Buses aren't good enough for our crowd.  Our $500 million streetcar system and the massive tax increases it will require are coming soon!

2 comments:

Governor Kandace Klein said...

OMG OMG this is like, just so completely unfair. We, like, totally deserve a streetcar that someone else pays for. Does this, like, mean I've got to ride one of those buses? Oooooh, gross!

Mr. No Car Man Brad Tomas said...

This is such a bummer. We deserved that streetcar. Now we have to pay for it ourselves. But hey, I love your tax idea to build a streetcar network across Cincinnati! I will start campaigning for it today.

By the way urbanists I'll be leaving work today at 5:30 PM. Txt me if you need a ride home in my CAR.