The Hamilton County Court of Appeals
refused to delay enforcement
of its earlier ruling on the city’s plan to lease its parking meters, lots and garages to the Greater Cincinnati Port Authority, which will allow the city administration to sign the lease as soon as a lower court rescinds its original injunction on the plan. Six out of nine City Council members say they want to repeal or rework the deal, but City Solicitor John Curp says Mayor Mark Mallory, who supports the plan, has the power to hold any repeal attempts until Nov. 30, which means he can effectively stop any repeal attempts until the end of his final term as mayor.
City Manager Milton Dohoney told City Council yesterday that the state government
will not pay for the I-71/MLK Interchange
if the city doesn’t pick up some of the cost. Dohoney made the statement when explaining how he would use the $92 million upfront money from the parking plan. The interchange project has long been sought out by city and state officials to create jobs and better connect uptown businesses to the rest of the area and state.
State officials told The Cincinnati Enquirer the final budget plan
may include downsized versions of the tax cut plans
in the Ohio House and Senate budget bills. The House bill included a 7-percent across-the-board income tax cut, while the Senate bill included a 50-percent income tax deduction for business owners worth up to $375,000 worth of income. Democrats have criticized the across-the-board income tax cut for cutting taxes for the wealthy and the business tax cut for giving a tax cut to passive investors, single-person firms and partnerships that are unlikely to add jobs. Republicans claim both tax cuts will spur the economy and create jobs.
ranked No. 46 out of the 50 states for job creation
in the past year, according to an infographic from Pew Charitable Trusts. Both Ohio and Alaska increased their employment levels by 0.1 percent. The three states below Ohio and Alaska — Wisconsin, Maine and Wyoming — had a drop in employment ranging from 0.2 percent to 0.5 percent.
Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted announced 8,229 new entities
filed to do business
in Ohio in May, up from 7,687 the year before.
StateImpact Ohio has an ongoing series about “value-added,” a state-sanctioned method of measuring teacher performance,
here
. The investigation has already
raised questions
about whether value-added is the “great equalizer” it was originally made out to be — or whether it largely benefits affluent school districts.
The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency
awarded $5,690 to the Cincinnati Nature Center
for its teacher training program Nature in the Classroom. The grant will help continue the program’s goals of training first through eighth grade teachers about local natural history, how to implement a science-based nature curriculum and how to engage students in exploring and investigating nature.
Controversial Cincinnati attorney Stan Chesley yesterday was
suspended from arguing before the U.S. Supreme Court
.
Kings Island and Cedar Point were
among the top 15 most visited amusement parks in the nation
in 2012 — after the obvious hotspots in California and Florida.
NASA’s astronaut class of 2013
.
launching balloon-based Internet
in New Zealand.
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and we’ll try to get back to you in our first Answers Issue.
CityBeat is looking to talk to convicted drug offenders from Ohio for an upcoming cover story. If you’d like to participate or know anyone willing to participate, email
glopez@citybeat.com
.
This article appears in Jun 12-18, 2013.