Morning News and Stuff

Today is the mayoral primary election between Democrat

Roxanne Qualls

, Democrat

John Cranley

, Libertarian

Jim Berns

and Independent

Sandra “Queen” Noble

. Qualls and Cranley are widely seen as the frontrunners. The big difference between the two candidates: Qualls supports and Cranley opposes

the streetcar project

and

parking lease

. Polls will be open until 7:30 p.m. tonight. To find out more information and where to vote, visit the Hamilton County Board of Elections website

here

.

LGBT groups, civil libertarians and legislators

came together in Cincinnati, Cleveland and Columbus

yesterday to announce Why Marriage Matters Ohio, a new statewide effort to educate and persuade Ohioans to support legalizing same-sex marriage. The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, Equality Ohio, Freedom to Marry and the Human Rights Campaign are all involved. The efforts have also been endorsed by faith and business community leaders, according to the groups. The groups say the campaign is partly in response to public polling.

The 2013 Ohio Values Survey

from the

Public Religion Research Institute

found Ohioans evenly divided on same-sex marriage: 47 percent supported it and 47 opposed it. But the survey went against earlier polls from The Washington Post and Quinnipiac University, which found a plurality of Ohioans now support same-sex marriage.

If he’s elected governor, Democrat Ed FitzGerald

says he would make changes to JobsOhio

to make it more transparent and open to a public audit, but he says he wouldn’t dismantle the privatized development agency altogether. FitzGerald acknowledges he would prefer a public agency to land the state’s development deals, but he says it’s unrealistic to expect the Republican-controlled General Assembly to repeal JobsOhio. The agency was established by Gov. John Kasich and fellow Republicans in 2011 to replace the Ohio Department of Development. Democrats have criticized JobsOhio for a lack of transparency that has mired it in several scandals and potential conflicts of interest lately, while Republicans insist the agency’s privatized, secretive nature help it establish job-creating development deals more quickly.

In a letter to the city manager, Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld is calling on the city to host town hall meetings with the four final candidates for Cincinnati Police chief. Sittenfeld says the meetings would help assess how the next police chief responds to the community and takes feedback. City Manager Milton Dohoney announced on Sept. 5 that city officials had

narrowed down its pool of candidates to four

: acting Chief Paul Humphries; Jeffrey Blackwell, deputy chief of the Columbus, Ohio, Police Department; Michael Dvorak, deputy chief of the Mesa, Ariz., Police Department; and Jerry Speziale, deputy superintendent of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police.

Hamilton County commissioners are likely to keep property taxes higher to pay for the stadium fund, which is running in the positive for the next five years after years of shortfalls. Last year, commissioners

agreed to reduce the property tax rollback

by half, effectively raising property taxes by $35 for every $100,000 in a home’s value. With yesterday’s news, it’s looking like the property tax hike will remain permanent. Even without the full rollback in place, the stadium fund is expected to start producing shortfalls again in 2019. The rollback disproportionately benefits the wealthy, who end up getting much more money back than low- and middle-income residents.

Meanwhile, county commissioners might take up an insurance policy with PNC Bank to

meet debt obligations on the stadium fund

for the next three years. Commissioner Greg Hartmann says the plan would give the county enough time to refinance, which could help reduce the fund’s problems.

City Council committees moved forward with two major pieces of legislation yesterday:
• Qualls’ plan would

enforce stricter regulations on the city’s lobbyists

and expand disclosure requirements for city officials to make the political process more transparent.
• Councilman Chris Seelbach’s proposal would

help address cellphone theft

by making it more difficult to sell the stolen devices.

As it stands, the Ohio Police and Fire Pension Fund

needs more money to stay solvent

. Still, officials say the fund needs time for newly implemented changes to start making an impact.

Cincinnati’s Horseshoe Casino now

stands as the top earner among Ohio casinos

, according to the latest state data.

New hybrid engines could lead to a new era of more affordable spaceplanes

.