Hamilton County’s $276 million budget for fiscal year 2020 will likely be $20 million in the red, according to Hamilton County Administrator Jeff Aluotto, a reality that could lead county commissioners to extend a .25 cent sales tax levy.
Voters passed the so-called “icon tax” in 2014 to raise $200 million for the restoration of Union Terminal. It is set to expire in April next year. Aluotto says extending the tax would raise $60 million through 2021.
Continued collection of the tax would be sufficient to close the upcoming funding gap, Aluotto says.
The county has struggled with increasing costs, a sales-tax-revenue-sapping deal for Cincinnati’s two riverfront stadiums as well as dwindling revenues from the state’s local government fund. Hamilton County lost $66 million in state funding between 2011 and 2017, Hamilton County Auditor Dusty Rhodes has said.
The county’s three Democratic commissioners have not said whether they would approve the sales tax extension. A move last year to boost the county’s sales tax by .2 percent met with strong resistance from conservatives, who mounted a petition drive to repeal the hike. County commissioners rescinded the proposed increase.
Tax opponents would need roughly 23,000 signatures to get a tax repeal referendum on the ballot this time around.
Commissioners will hold public meetings next month to gather input about the county budget. Two of those meetings will take place Oct. 3 and Oct. 10, with a third yet to be announced. Locations for those meetings have yet to be decided.
This article appears in Aug 28 – Sep 4, 2019.