Friday, August 3, 2012

Breaking: Blue Ash Council to help build Cincinnati streetcar



Dear fellow tax hikers, we can exclusively report that the Blue Ash City Council has met in secret and agreed to assist the City of Cincinnati in finding millions of new dollars to help build their all-important streetcar.  Blue Ash Council met on July 30th to discuss tearing up their 2006 deal with Cincinnati, and then agreed to a new deal that is structured in such a way that Cincinnati can legally use $11 million of the proceeds to fund the beloved streetcar. 

In 2006 the City of Cincinnati agreed to sell 130 acres of land around the Blue Ash Airport (at that point the airport and surrounding land was owned by Cincinnati) to the City of Blue Ash for $37.5 million.  A little later, Cincinnati decided to apply $11 million of the proceeds to pay back some of the city's streetcar bonds.  However, the FAA informed Cincinnati this would be illegal, and that the money must be kept within the local airport system.

As a result of this order, Cincinnati is seeking a mulligan.  Translated, this means Cincinnati wants to cancel the property deal with Blue Ash, then close the airport, then enter a new deal with Blue Ash to once again sell them those 130 acres.  Cincinnati should then be free to apply the desired $11 million of proceeds to the streetcar.

Of course, Blue Ash can totally trust that Cincinnati won't try to raise the price, or sell to another bidder such as one who donates large money to their campaigns. Mayor Mark Mallory and Cincinnati City Council are nothing if not trustworthy and reliable.

We are delighted that Blue Ash City Council has agreed behind closed doors to this arrangement!  They have already voted to formally pass this plan at their next Council meeting on Thursday August 9th.

This should surprise nobody.  After all, the most powerful Blue Ash Councilman is none other than 2011 Tax Hiker of the Year Rick Bryan.  Tax Hikin' Rick Bryan can always be counted on to raise taxes, grow government, and support wonderful new projects like the Cincinnati Streetcar.  His leadership on this issue is indispensable.  In fact, we urge Cincinnati to name part of the streetcar route after Rick Bryan for all he has done to make this fantastic project possible. 

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great, this is why we elect Republicans in Blue Ash, to help Cincinnati build a streetcar? I remember when Republicans used to be responsible.

I Might Be Carl Weiser said...

True secret, I get my news from Republicans for Higher Taxes! Maybe I'll get around to reporting this story.....several weeks after it happens. Sorry I can't say more, I'm working on a MAJOR story about what to expect at the World Choir Games!

Princess Margaret said...

YAYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!! for all my frienlies on Blue Ash City Council for making this happen! Rick and Jim and Lee, you guys are the bestest ever. The streetcar is going to be sooooooooo awesome! I can't wait till it goes out to Kenwood Towne Centre and I can use it to go buy more high heels and cocktail party dresses. I knew I could count on you guys.

Alex T said...

You know, the Greeks invented streetcars.

Billy Blessing said...

My friends in Blue Ash sure know how to cover things up don't they? Maybe I should learn a lesson from them.

http://www.courtclerk.org/case_summary.asp?casenumber=/06/CRB/22378

Citizens for Tom Weidman said...

Would it surprise you to learn that I donated to Rick Bryan on October 22, 2011? Now you see why. Go streetcar!

City Councilman Chris Seelbach said...

Being a City Councilman, I as a City Councilman fully appreciate Blue Ash's vote to give us our streetcar, which I support being a City Councilman. As a City Councilman I vote for the streetcar every chance I get and it warms me, a City Councilman, that Blue Ash is helping us. As a City Councilman I can't for the streetcar to be built. Thanks Blue Ash!

SENATOR BILL said...

BROTHER BRYAN, BROTHER SUMNER, AND BROTHER LEE, YOU ALL DO ME SO PROUD AS REPUBLICANS. THIS IS THE KIND OF OUT-OF-THE-BOX THINKING WE NEED TO DO IN THE SUBURBS IN ORDER TO COOPERATE WITH OUR GOOD FRIENDS IN THE CITY OF CINCINNATI. NOW I MIGHT TALK A GOOD WHILE EVERY NOW AND THEN ABOUT HOW BAD THE CITY OF CINCINNATI IS. IT'S EASY TO GET THOSE OVEREATING SLOBS IN THE SUBURBS TO BELIEVE ANYTHING I SAY THAT'S CRITICAL OF THE CITY OF CINCINNATI. MAKE NO MISTAKE. I WORK IN DOWNTOWN CINCINNATI. I LIVE IN THE CINCINNATI PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT. I AM A PROUD GRADUATE OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND I AM DAMNED IF I AM GOING TO LET A BUNCH OF ANTI-TAX SO-CALLED CONSERVATIVES GET IN THE WAY OF PROGRESS FOR OUR GREAT CITY! I COMMEND YOU ALL FOR THE OUTSTANDING WORK YOU'VE DONE FOR OUR REGION AND FOR THE FINE COMMUNITY YOU HAVE IN BLUE ASH.

Campaign Expert Matheny said...

It's too bad I am the only blood relative of an elected official to lose my own election in the history of Hamilton County, otherwise my daddy and I could team up to help Cincinnati with their streetcar too. But my buds Rick and Jim and Lee are sooooo cool for doing this.

Off to the vacant office park I manage as I get to drive past the empty restaurants and businesses in Springdale.

At least I can pretend to have something to do with a winner with my breatless Facebook updates on the Reds.

Flying Monkeys said...

Kudos to Blue Ash City Council for making this happen. Since those nasty, evil conservatives voted us out of our cushy, comfy taxpayer paid jobs, are you guys hiring?

F. Lee Czerwonka said...

Earlier this year I support Jean Schmidt. This week I assisted the Cincinnati streetcar. I'm on a roll!

Dusty Baker said...

Will this city just build the dang street car? My son needs a place to hang out safely.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20021025&content_id=164674&fext=.jsp&c_id=null

The Lovely First Lady of Deer Park, Verne Collins said...

Yeah I'll drink to that!

Marvin Lewis said...

I agree with Dusty. Having a streetcar would lower our team's crime rate, especially DUIs.

news reporter said...

Oh wait there was another mass shooting. Time to go blame the tea party.

Tea Partiers said...

While our brethren elsewhere stand up against big transportation boondoggles promoted by Republicans,

http://www.ajc.com/news/tea-party-notches-a-1488517.html

we are keeping quiet here because we made a deal with Alex to never criticize anything Republicans do while he hands our founder a state legislative seat on a silver platter.

Ash, Alex and the gang of Quislings on Walnut said...

Notice we're not going to do or say a damned thing.

LWB III said...

Dear Tea Partiers: thanks for looking the other way on nepotism within the Republican Party, too.

I'm glad you guys keep quiet on all that.

Very wise of Alex to cut that deal with you guys.

Tea Partiers in other parts of the country sure are a bothersome bunch.

http://www.wrta.com/Blair-Tea-Party-Asks-Schools-for-Strict-Nepotism-P/11679621

Cincy Tea Time said...

Wait, you're saying we should challenge Alex T. to do something? But if we did that we might not get as many photo ops with Rob Portman and other dignitaries as we currently do. Maybe the streetcar isn't such a bad idea.

Dave, Tony, Rocky, Tom, Tracy, et al said...

We're glad the Tea Party has kept quiet about a lot of things in Green Township.

No Blue Ash Streetcar said...

I heard that two Tea Party groups sent a mass email to their members urging them to oppose this Blue Ash/Cincinnati streetcar scheme. Yay!

Brad Wemstrip's Campaign Mangler said...

A real campaign manager would be putting out a press release announcing his candidate's opposition to this manuever.

A real campaign manager would put said press release on the campaign website after using the campaign mailing list to send it to political reporters and news outlets.

A real campaign manager would make follow up phone calls to the media to make sure the candidate's opposition gets news coverage.

A real campaign manager would come to this council meeting to reach out to the fiscal conservatives opposed to this waste of taxpayer dollars.

However, I am none of these things. I am a career bureaucrat who takes orders from others and am counting down the days until I can make $100,000 per year sitting in the Congressman's Congressional office answering phones (if I feel like it, I'll have staff for that) and doing whatever he tells me to do. If he ever does.

Gotta run. Time for some golf before Kels and I meet up for some drinks with Suzy Kitten. MEOW!

Dang, she's even got me doing that now.

Jason Stewart Beacraft said...

I love it when right-wingers argue amongst themselves over who the true conservatives really are. Keep that up, while hard-hitting, factual ads like this expose the Republican Party's nominee for the complete fraud and outrageously greedy bigot he is. Enjoy your irrelevancy after the November landslide wipes you and your racist hate-speech off the face of the political map.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/burns-haberman/2012/08/priorities-ad-ties-romney-to-lost-health-insurance-131276.html

Anonymous said...

The Blue Ash council is Rhino-rific! Yeah!

Organizing for America said...

It's so much fun watching Republicans argue amongst themselves while they misquote all the fabricated stuff they watch on FauxNews to each other and throw around important sounding terms like "Cloward-Piven" to make themselves sound so gosh-darn intelligent. You people keep doing that.

Meanwhile the Obama campaign and Democrats everywhere are canvassing neighborhoods, talking to voters, registering new voters, canvassing college campuses and new subdivisions, getting our candidates out to meet people, working to set up campaign rallies, researching issues, writing press releases, researching Republican candidates, sending our operatives to what few Republican events there are, and just generally out-working and out-hustling you guys while you sit in front of computers and forward laughably false e-mails filled with right-wing hate speech over and over again. Enjoy your irrelevancy. Apparently, we didn't sufficiently defeat you enough in 2008. Looking forward to wipiing you right-wingers off the political map once and for all in 2008. Here it comes again.