Major events for Cincinnati’s streetcar project this week: Today, supporters will turn in petitions to get the issue on the ballot; late today or early tomorrow, KPMG will turn in audit of the project’s completion, cancellation and operating costs; tomorrow, council will take public comment on the project at 1:30 p.m.; and on Thursday, council will debate and make the final decision on the streetcar.
Other streetcar news:
• Mayor John Cranley is asking streetcar opponents to speak up during the public comments section of Wednesday’s council meeting.
• Supporters collected more than 9,000 signatures to get the streetcar project on the ballot. Nearly 6,000 signatures need to be verified to allow a vote in the coming months.
City Council’s budget committee yesterday advanced funding for the $106 million uptown interchange project at Martin Luther King Drive and Interstate 71. The capital funding set by council will be backed through property taxes, which, according to the city administration, will prevent the city from reducing property taxes in the future as originally planned. Still, proponents of the project, including a unanimous body of council, say the project is worth the investment; the University of Cincinnati’s Economics Center found in a May 2012 study that the interchange will generate 5,900 to 7,300 permanent jobs, $133 million in economic development during construction and another $750 million once the interchange opens.
Congress appears ready to pass a bipartisan budget deal that will not extend emergency benefits for the long-term unemployed through 2014, which could leave more than 36,000 unemployed Ohioans behind in December and 128,600 Ohioans without aid through 2014. The emergency benefits were originally adopted by Congress to provide a safety net for those worst affected by the Great Recession. Conservatives, touting the $25.2 billion annual cost, say the economy has improved enough to let the costly benefits expire, but liberals, pointing to the high numbers of long-term unemployed, say the benefits are still needed and would help keep the economy on a stable recovery.
The Cincinnati area’s economy could overtake the Cleveland area in 2015.
Six men were taken into custody after a SWAT team responded to a home and engaged in a gun battle that left a three-year-old critically injured.
A Union Township trustee says he can’t believe Chris Finney would hurt his credibility for a $850-a-year tax break to open a law firm in Clermont County. As a member of the Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes, Finney repeatedly spoke against tax breaks for businesses in the past.
Medicaid expansion supporters announced yesterday that they’re no longer pursuing a ballot initiative after actions from Gov. John Kasich and the Ohio Controlling Board effectively enacted the expansion, which taps into federal funds to expand Medicaid eligibility to 138 percent of the federal poverty level.
The Kasich administration expects to hand out education grants from the “Straight A” fund on Wednesday in an attempt to reward innovation at the state’s schools. The grants will go to more than 150 of Ohio’s 614 school districts, according to state officials.
Someone hacked The Cincinnati Enquirer’s online streetcar polls.
The Mega Millions jackpot hit $586 million yesterday.
A new study finds “blind as a bat” isn’t blind at all.
Watch giraffes clash in a surprising, epic one-on-one:
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