A week after city administration proposed ways to bridge a roughly more than $1 million budget deficit for the streetcar, some Democrats on Cincinnati City Council have proposed their own solutions.
But it’s unclear if the fixes — which avoid a controversial admissions tax for nonprofits like the Cincinnati Zoo and other popular attractions proposed by the administration — have enough votes to clear a mayoral veto.
The plan proposed by council members Greg Landsman, David Mann and Chris Seelbach would create a long-term plan for streetcar funding, its creators say. The proposal would cover streetcar operations by doing the following:
• Increasing fines in no parking zones from $50 to $60 to bring in an additional $400,000 a year
• Increasing tickets for parking at expired meters from $45 to $50, bringing in an extra $200,000 a year
• Move forward with digital ad kiosks at streetcar stops to raise an additional $500,000 a year. Those kiosks have already been purchased, but have yet to be deployed.
• Cut $50,000 from the current streetcar budget
The city administration proposed two possible solutions to the budget crunch: the aforementioned ticket tax or hikes to parking fees, an increased residential parking permit fee for Over-the-Rhine and a car booting program for cars with outstanding parking violations.
Council member P.G. Sittenfeld has indicated he wouldn’t support the former option, however, and a number of popular groups, including the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, have expressed their displeasure with the idea.
But not everyone is on board with the alternative offered by council. Councilmember Tamaya Dennard voted against the plan today in council’s Budget and Finance Committee. She doesn’t like the idea of raising the cost of parking tickets, which could have an adverse impact on low-and-moderate-income residents.
Council will likely need six votes to overcome a potential mayoral veto; Vice Mayor Christopher Smitherman and council members Amy Murray and Jeff Pastor, both Republicans, are opposed to the plan from Seelbach, Mann and Landsman.
Councilmember Landsman today said that he hopes the changes are part of a larger shift toward sustainability for the streetcar. Landsman laid out several points he said should get the streetcar to increased ridership and overall success experienced by other systems like one in Kansas City.
The first step — hiring a streetcar CEO — has already happened. The city pays >Travis Jeric, who formerly worked in the city’s law department, $105,000 a year to lead the transit project.
Landsman said the streetcar should also be overseen by an independent nonprofit entity. Efforts are already underway to make that happen, Landsman says. Currently the streetcar is run by a complicated collaboration between the city, the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority and contractor Transdev.
The streetcar also needs to be reliable, something that the system has struggled with in the past. But Landsman said things are getting better on that end, and work continues to clear blockages in high-traffic areas downtown.
The project also needs to be free to ride, Landsman says — something the city says will cost an extra $100,000 in security costs.
One of the biggest changes Landsman is championing could also be the most challenging — a special taxing district in downtown and Over-the-Rhine in which property owners are assessed extra taxes to help operate the streetcar. That would need approval from those property owners, however.
“We’ve obviously inherited a bit of a mess in terms of the project, both financially and otherwise,” Landsman says. “I think the only way forward is to try and… fix what’s broken.”
This article appears in Jun 5-12, 2019.