Qualls defends supporting the Stadium Tax

Dear fellow tax hikers, all of you are aware of the huge, pivotal role that Roxanne Qualls played in the passage of the Bob Bedinghaus Stadium Tax that we all enjoy today.  We are delighted to learn that Roxanne continues to defend her advocacy of this important tax.

During a recent online chat a user quizzed Roxy about her support for the stadium investment, and asked her if the streetcar investment will be just as successful.  The Queen affirmed her backing for these investments. 

Roxanne Qualls is right to defend her vital role in passing the Bedinghaus Stadium Tax.  That tax has done so much good for our community.  And the streetcar will be almost as great.  Roxanne says so, and so do we. 

Cranley criticizes Qualls for supporting stadium tax

Dear fellow tax hikers, how dare John Cranley criticize Roxanne Qualls for her pivotal support of the Bob Bedinghaus Stadium Tax!  Cranley had the nerve to do this earlier today during his public chat on WCPO. 

This is unfair criticism.  Roxanne Qualls The Stadium Queen deserves nothing but love for her huge role in passing the Stadium Tax.  The Stadium Tax had failed to crack 50% in the polls until Roxanne appeared in the campaign ads - a theme we detailed in an earlier entry. 

We also object to Cranley criticizing The Queen for her role in moving the Bengals stadium west, thus adding anywhere from $70 million to $150 million depending on who you ask.  Bedinghaus and Qualls had to hide these costs from the public before the vote or else the tax would have been harder to pass.  We tax hikers routinely pull this trick - underestimate the costs to win the vote, then add the costs after the fact when it's too late to go back.

We applaud Roxanne Qualls for everything she did to pass the Bedinghaus Stadium Tax.  Because of Roxy we have been paying that tax for 17 years and we'll be paying for over 20 more, not to mention our enjoyment of all the benefits it has brought.  Cranley has no right to criticize Roxanne for her fantastic work on these stadiums which have brought so much good to Hamilton County.

Get motivated

Dear fellow tax hikers, it's time for us to stop whining and get motivated for this huge mayoral election in November!  After everything Roxanne Qualls has done to push the parking plan, streetcar, stadium tax, and jail tax, we owe her nothing but our best over these next 7 weeks.

To help motivate you, we are going to republish a comment left on this website from a Cranley supporter taunting us after his big victory last week.  Read it and GET MAD!

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Great predictions Qualls streetcar nutjobs. I'd like to remind you of your electoral idiocy on tonight, as John Cranley celebrates an ass-whipping victory of Streetcar Roxanne Qualls...


Game Over, GOP said:
"Cranley's endless pandering to Republicans will cost him dearly tomorrow. Republicans simply will not vote in a Democratic party primary.  Qualls will be seen as the front-runner and the Cranley/Right-Wing Smear Machine will never catch up."
- Is Qualls still the frontrunner after losing by 20 points?

Reality Check said:
"Fun times await us tomorrow night when Roxanne wins and the losers behind this blog are crying in their beers."
- How were your fun times? I hope you weren't crying in your beers.

Let Me Get This Straight said:
"Clearly, the Cranley campaign is flailing about in desperation hoping that something, anything will stick."
- I bet all flailing campaigns wish they could pull off a 20 point win.

Best Ad of the Season said:
"After having established her leadership bona fides, Roxanne Qualls does a sterling job of reminding the voters why they can't stand John Cranley."
- If by sterling job you mean hilariously ineffective then I agree.

Time to Face Reality said:
"The only downside to the thorough defeat that will be administered to John Cranley this Tuesday is that he will use the next two months to spew even more right-wing anger and hatred at all of us."
- Still think that's the only downside to tonight's election? Reality check anyone?

Math is Hard said:
"Roxanne does better among women than Cranley does among men. Unless women turn out less than men, which never happens, there is no way Roxanne can lose."
- Math is hard, which is why I suggest you take a class to brush up on your skills.

Anonymous Informed Voter said:
"John Cranley's craven political opportunism and his pandering to Tea Partiers, a minority within a minority, will cost him dearly this Tuesday and on November 5."
- Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Sign Watcher said:
"In the past three days, I've gone across the city and back for various reasons. East side, west side, OTR, Clifton, Hartwell, Mt. Airy, no matter where you go there is far more support shown for Qualls than Cranley."
- I suggest you do a more thorough sign count, or become a better liar.

Discussion: Cincinnati Mayoral Primary

Dear fellow tax hikers, we hope everyone has had a chance to calm down after the stunning defeat of our Roxanne Qualls in Tuesday's Mayoral Primary.  If we have any hope of overcoming this setback to win in November we must quickly learn from our failures and rebuild. 

We are asking for reader participation.  Tell us, why do you think Roxanne Qualls lost this primary?  Is it because people didn't know about all the taxes she raised.  Is it because more people weren't aware of her pivotal role in passing the Bob Bedinghaus Stadium Tax?  Is it because people for some reason didn't think it was appropriate for her to run a campaign ad showing a dog pissing on a Cranley sign?  Is it because her legions of supporters simply forgot to vote that day? 

After you explain Roxanne's loss, we'd also like your advice explaining how we can turn this campaign around.  We need Roxanne Qualls to win in November.  If she loses, the streetcar might be stopped, the parking plan might be stopped, and we might not get any new tax increases for a while.  We must turn this around.

Cranley crushes Qualls and Noble

Dear fellow tax hikers, yesterday was a disastrous night for our high-tax goddess Roxanne Qualls.  Widely expected to win last night - even by people who think John Cranley would ultimately pull through in November - Qualls was outright crushed.   Cranley defeated her by a shocking 56-37 margin, with Jim Berns and Sandra Queen Noble pulling the rest. 

We are partially responsible for this horrendous defeat.  We got complacent.  We assumed Roxanne had this in the bag.  We were so certain of Roxanne's victory that we screwed around and published a silly endorsement of Sandra Queen Noble. We thought we were so funny, but the only ones laughing now are Cranley and his supporters.

The games are over effective immediately.  All of us tax hikers, streetcar fans, and Bedinghaus Stadium Tax supporters better unify at once behind Roxanne.  We need to remind the voters she is 100% behind the streetcar.  We need to remind them she is pushing the popular parking plan.  And we must remind everyone that Roxanne Qualls played a HUGE role in passing the Bob Bedinghaus Stadium Tax.

Before we sign off, we have to give credit to the impressive performance of our endorsed candidate Sandra Queen Noble.  Sandra finished with 2.1% of the vote - a huge improvement from the 0.3% of the vote she received in her last run for Mayor.  With our endorsement, Sandra finished with 7 times the percentage of the vote of her last Mayoral campaign!  That's great progress.

Even though we now wish we had sent all those votes to Roxanne, we still thank all of you who helped either Qualls or Queen in yesterday's election.  On to November we tax hikers roll. 

Sandra Queen Noble for Mayor

Dear fellow tax hikers, we endorse the lovely Sandra Queen Noble for Cincinnati Mayor.  We need all of you to vote for her in today's primary so she can advance to November's General Election.

Why are we endorsing Queen Noble?  Ask yo momma bitch!

And don't ever print her muthafuckin' photograph without her permission and shit.

Don't you dare publish her comments without her written consent bitches.  Give her back her kids.  Vote for the Queen, not them racist incumbents and the Nazi fuking reporters who cover for them.

Roxanne Qualls, The Stadium Queen

Roxanne Qualls, with Bob Bedinghaus and Mike Brown

Dear fellow tax hikers, for many years former Commissioner Bob Bedinghaus has received most of the credit for the wildly successful stadium tax that has brought much wealth and prosperity to Hamilton County.  However, he did not do it alone.  As the evidence shows, Roxanne Qualls was more responsible than anyone for winning the Stadium Tax vote.

Roxanne Qualls not only supported the Bedinghaus Stadium Tax, she was a pivotal force in getting it passed.  A detailed analysis of this and more can be found in the June 1996 edition of Cincinnati Magazine, Pages 68-74. 

Passing this wonderful tax increase took a lot of work.  Roxanne was there from the beginning:

Bedinghaus, Qualls, and Voinovich - a holy trinity of legendary tax hikers. (and some people say it is Cranley who works too closely with Republicans)

But the Bedinghaus tax wasn't polling well early in the campaign and needed a boost to make sure this vitally important tax increase passed.  Enter Roxanne Qualls!

It was Roxanne Qualls who pushed the Bedinghaus tax ahead in the polls.  And it was Roxanne who kept it that way:

Qualls knows a good deal when she sees one, and the Bedinghaus stadium deal was one of the best.  The Roxanne Qualls stadiums were an "investment".  Just like the Roxanne Qualls streetcar is also an "investment".

While we give a ton of credit to Bob Bedinghaus for giving us this fantastic stadium deal, he isn't the one who won it at the polls - that was Roxanne Qualls.  We thank Roxy from the bottom of our hearts for everything she did to pass the 20 Year 40 Year Bedinghaus Stadium Tax.

It was Roxanne Qualls who supported the Bedinghaus Stadium Tax.  It was Roxanne Qualls who worked tirelessly on the Stadium Tax campaign.  It was Roxanne Qualls who went on tv to get the Stadium Tax passed.  If it wasn't for Roxy, we would not be paying that Stadium Tax for the Bedinghaus stadium deals today.  Wouldn't that be awful?  Thanks to Roxanne, we've been paying that Stadium Tax for many years, and we will be for many many more. 

Big Roxanne Qualls story coming soon

Dear fellow tax hikers, we are delighted to announce that a major story about Roxanne Qualls will be posted here later this week.  We have found some delightful information about her past that many people will want to know.  Unless a major breaking story bumps this one, we plan to publish by Wednesday morning. 

Enquirer calls out obnoxious Hochscheid

Dear fellow tax hikers, we were quite amused to see all the Democratic in-fighting taking place in the comments section of a recent Enquirer Politics entry about the Cincinnati Mayoral race.  Naturally, right in the middle of this battle was the infamous bigot Craig Hochscheid (CincyCapell) - it's not like he has anything else to do with his life. 

This time, the Enquirer decided to call him out for his dishonest remarks.  Please click the link if you want you to see the details for yourself.

We can understand where the Enquirer is coming from.  We suspect that they, like us, have had to delete an astounding number of his bigoted and otherwise inappropriate comments and deal with his never-ending personal attacks. 

This reprimand led to Hochscheid #2 entering the fray.  Tabitha Hochscheid, who works as a glorified debt collector, decided to throw her weight around.  According to her it's so unfair that anyone would criticize her beloved Craig.  We're not sure Tabby has been this upset since Hostess shut down. 

One thing is certain - Craig Hochscheid is finding life as a smear artist much more difficult when he can't hide behind someone else's identity. 

Sean Donovan's wife indicted

MJ Donovan, in a very handsome suit

Dear fellow tax hikers, this is a tragic day for all of us as the wife of our dear friend Sean Donovan has been indicted on federal charges.  Mrs. Mary Jill Donovan is facing Obstruction of Justice charges and will appear in front of a Federal Judge soon. 

No word whether Sean Donovan still believes we need more jail space.

This indictment hurts us deeply.  We proudly endorsed Sean Donovan for Sheriff last year, and in fact we made his race our #1 priority of the 2012 election.  His advocacy for higher taxes, the streetcar, double-dipping, and an oversized upper administrative staff would have made him a perfect Sheriff. 

Those close to our heroes Simon Leis and Sean Donovan have kept the justice system busy this year, between the Mickey Esposito crimes and the MJ Donovan indictment.  We miss this kind of drama from the Hamilton County Sheriff's Department.  Sheriff or no Sheriff, we stand behind Sean Donovan, and his indicted wife. 

You pay Laure Quinlivan's taxes too

Dear fellow tax hikers, three weeks ago we reported that Councilman Roxanne Qualls doesn't pay her fair share of taxes.  Due to property tax abatements, you pay most of her taxes for her.  It turns out she isn't the only Cincinnati City Councilman who you carry. 

Laure Quinlivan doesn't have to pay her taxes either.  She is another lucky recipient of the Property Tax Abatement Sweepstakes that seems to benefit liberal streetcar supporters.  Councilman Quinlivan owns a $415,640 home, yet pays taxes as if it was worth only $296,670.  The rest of you pay her taxes for her. 

When Ms. Quinlivan says WE need to pay higher property taxes to pay for the Cincinnati Streetcar, what she really means is YOU need to pay more.  Since she isn't carrying her own weight, you get to pay Laure's way in addition to your own. 

We continue to thank all of you for generously paying taxes for Roxanne Qualls and Laure Quinlivan.  They raise the taxes - and you pay them.  We think this is a fair tradeoff.  We urge Qualls and Quinlivan to continue raising taxes - taxes that you'll be paying and they won't.

Key streetcar advocate accused of fraud

Dear fellow tax hikers, we have all been rattled by the news that streetcar leader and future Governor Candace Klein has been accused of fraud by the State of Ohio.  Among other things, she and her company have been accused of: falsely reporting their financial information, misrepresenting their relationship with banks, failing to obtain legally required state and federal licenses, and failing to make needed disclosures to investors. 

Ms. Klein has made her mark as a strong advocate for our beloved Cincinnati Streetcar.  She is a former President of the urban hipster group CincyPAC and a former co-Chairman of Cincinnatians for Progress, two groups centered around streetcar love.  

An ambitious one, Candace Klein held a press conference in 2002 to announce that she was running for Governor of Kentucky in 2027.

We know that Governor Klein will fight her way through these accusations.  She certainly has a lot of experience with the judicial system, given her previous arrests in 2002, 2003, and 2007.

Just because she may have broken the law then doesn't mean she has now.  And just because this streetcar supporter has been accused of issuing phony projections doesn't mean that other streetcar supporters have been issuing phony projections for the streetcar.  Governor Candace Klein and the Cincinnati Streetcar are two peas in a pod - two of the best Cincinnati has to offer.