Jim Tarbell - 2014 Winner of the Year

- co-authored by Krista Ramsey

Dear fellow tax hikers, there were many winners in the historic 2014 election. None greater than County Commission write-in candidate Jim Tarbell.  Tarbell's candidacy was about anger - anger that the County Commissioners didn't want to raise Hamilton County's Sales Tax to renovate the Cincinnati-owned Music Hall. 

Tarbell channeled that anger to get a commanding 6.6% of the vote, losing to Chris Monzel by over 50 points.  Look at all that anger!  By achieving less than 7% of the vote and finishing a distant 3rd out of 3 candidates, Tarbell achieved many aspects of a win and demonstrated himself to be the biggest winner of 2014. 

While we're very proud of Tarbell and his 6%, we feel compelled to name Micah Kamrass as a very close second-place. He's a rising star.  He raised a ton of money.  Everyone supported him and he guaranteed to win big.  His campaign was so well run.  He was even a Student Government President.  And as Krista keeps telling is, he is sooooo dreamy!

All that was good enough to get Kamrass 44% of the vote in a landslide loss.  But as The Enquirer was quick to remind us, we'll count it as a win anyways.  If Micah could have gotten to 47 or 48%, we would have declared him the landslide victor.  Please join us in honoring these two great winners. 

2014 Winners and Losers

Jim Sumner, teaching Rick Bryan volunteers how to lose an election

Dear fellow tax hikers, it's great to be back!  This site has been dormant for the last two weeks as we have been fighting a major depression caused by the successes of State Representative Jonathan Dever and The National Champion Ohio State Buckeyes.  But we'll be fine, as long as we stay on our medication.

Our first project of the year is to honor the best (and worst) of 2014.  Those who made their mark deserve to have their efforts noted.

And unlike the Oscars, we allow minorities to be nominated.  By the end of the month we will announce our award winners.  Do you tax hikers have an opinion or two?  Just tell us!

State Representative Jonathan Dever

This was a tragic moment for us tax hikers.

How did we let this happen?

Sharonville joins Hamilton County Public Health

Dear fellow tax hikers, disturbing news has come out of Sharonville as their Mayor and City Council have decided to close the city's health department and instead utilize the services of Hamilton County Public Health.  These people don't understand - they are "losing control", whatever that means.

Even worse, this move saves Sharonville taxpayers approximately $250,000.  Instead of paying around $278,000 per year to run their own Health Department, they are paying Hamilton County $28,000 for almost exactly the same services.  That is what we tax hikers call a bad deal. 

Perhaps the most appalling part of this decision is their diss against the fine City of Springdale, one of the few left that has their own Health Department.  Mayor Hardman ruled out merging Sharonville's Health Department with Springdale's and said:

“At best, we would see a $67,000 savings per year,” the mayor said. “Springdale has some flaws and I would have concerns about getting into bed with them.”

That is an outrageous statement.  We would be delighted to jump into bed with Royal Doyle Webster. 

We stand with the citizens of Sharonville who oppose this decision and are fighting to overturn it.  Specifically, we encourage all Sharonville citizens to sign the referendum to reverse this horrible plan.  Why spend just $28,000 when you can spend $278,000 for the same thing?