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Council Decides on What to Do with Still-to-be-Earned Casino Money

Posted on October 1st, 2010

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At the start of the week, the members of the Cincinnati City Council already made a huge announcement – their plans to use casino revenue to give the Port Authority a lift and at the same time generate new employment opportunities. Jeff Berding, Chris Bortz, Leslie Ghiz , Chris Monzel and Charlie Winburn, five members of the city council, with the support of several community leaders bravely announced their plans to develop the functions of the Port Authority by making the revenue generated from the casino as its mechanism for funding. The Port Authority would then have a steady source of funding should the plan by the councilors be realized, as $1 million will be given to it this year from the capital fund. The casino revenue that will be funneled to the city will have half of it going to the authority from 2011 to 2026. For 15 years, the Port Authority will have $10 million in fund for every year from the city (from the casino), or a total of $150 million.

The unemployment rate of the city is reaching an alarming rate of 10 percent. With that figure, the council believes that there is no time to waste when it comes to making the Port area profitable again; And what better way to make it profitable than to develop new businesses and opportunities in the area with the money from casinos? Money from the state government and other sources takes a lot of time before reaching the Port Authority, and the city does not have the luxury of time. One of the councilors, Charlie Winburn, said, “It is about creating jobs and more jobs. It is about expanding our tax base.” A study connected with the 2008 Go Cincinnati initiative (which also summed up to $500,000) has filed a recommendation that there should be one agency that would take the lead when it comes to matters of economic development in one of Ohio’s biggest cities. The plan would now seem to affirm that the Port Authority would be that body that Go Cincinnati recommended two years ago.

Before the announcement, the Strategic Growth Committee of the council approved this plan, and all members of the council will be discussing it through the week. The measure is expected to go through whether the city’s Mayor Mark Mallory and Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls support it or not. Once the plan is approved, Milton Dohoney the manger of the city will be given the go signal to work side by side with the head honchos of the Port Authority powers in planning strategies for employment creation for the next 15 years. Another councilor, Jeff Berding, commented, “These dollars are going to be spent on bringing jobs and creating jobs here in the city, so that people can go to work; and that we have a tax base that helps provide the police and fire and other services that our citizens require.”

But with all the plans and provisions in play, there is one concern that is very glaring amidst of everything – the casino, where all the money will be coming from, is not yet operational. But the fact that the council is already counting the eggs before they have been hatched is quite solid proof that the casino should be up and about ASAP, churning out revenue. Another mystery also has cropped up: with the council decision to give 50 percent to the Port Authority, where will the other 50 percent go? Berding has this to say, “Depends on the mayor. I mean, we’re going to pass ours. If he wants to go ahead and identify the other 50 percent, we’re willing to do that.” He adds that the council wants to avoid the debacle of the $55 million demutualization scheme of the health insurance provider of the city, where no feasible results were seen in the projects where the money was allocated. He added, “I know what happened to the Anthem demutualization money. Council spent it all up on a bunch of pet projects with very little to show for it. We want to avoid that here.” The mayor has yet to issue an official comment on the council’s moves.