Good morning all, here’s some quick news today.
The city of Cincinnati yesterday granted Columbia REI a permit it requested to demolish the Dennison building downtown. The real estate company held by the local auto magnates the Joseph family owns the historic 125-year-old Dennison, which sits in the Main Street Historic District. The building has been the subject of massive fights between preservationists — who say the building designed by the firm of noted architect Samuel Hannaford should be saved — and the company, which says it would like to build a headquarters for an as-yetto be determined Fortune 500 company on the site. Advocates for keeping the building look likely to turn to a challenge in the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas next. Get more background on the Dennison here.
• A day after Cincinnati officials declared the city a so-called sanctuary city, some conservatives are pushing back. Yesterday City Councilman Charlie Winburn, Hamilton County Commissioner Chris Monzel and Ohio State Treasurer Josh Mandel held a news conference slamming the announcement. “Over our dead bodies will Cincinnati become a sanctuary city,” Mandel said. The Republican officials argued that sanctuary status will make the city more dangerous and open it up to cuts in federal funding threatened by President Donald Trump. U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, a Republican who has spoken out — albeit in muted terms — against an immigration ban Trump recently signed that prompted the sanctuary announcement, called Cincinnati’s move “strange,” citing Trump’s threat to cut federal funding
Being a sanctuary city generally means local authorities don’t cooperate with immigration enforcement efforts, which now are made by the Trump administration. There are about 200 municipalities across the country that have identified as such. No policy changes resulted from the sanctuary city announcement here, as the Cincinnati Police Department already forgoes immigration enforcement work.
• Cincinnati’s 2017 mayoral race is shaping up to be one of the most expensive in the city’s history. Incumbent Mayor John Cranley has raised nearly $1 million already and aims to hit somewhere in the $2.5 million range before all is said and done. His opponents, Councilwoman Yvette Simpson and former University of Cincinnati Board Chair Rob Richardson, Jr., will have to work feverishly to match that haul, which would be bigger than the previous record of $1.2 million raised by then-Democrat mayoral candidate David Pepper in 2005. But money can’t buy everything: Pepper still lost that year to party mate Mark Mallory.
• Did a contractor for a downtown construction project engage in wage theft? That’s what some of its employees say. Three steelworkers of Hispanic origin working for R & R Steel on the 8th and Sycamore project say they were being paid about half the hourly wages other workers are paid, despite the project being subject to prevailing wages. They allege that the company owes them thousands of dollars for the discrepancy. The city of Cincinnati, Ohio Department of Commerce and U.S. Department of Labor are investigating the incident, which the company calls a misunderstanding that it has now corrected.
• Here’s some big news for the Greater Cincinnati area: Amazon is constructing a $1.49 billion Prime Air hub at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. The hub will eventually create 2,700 jobs, the company says, including 600 immediately. The deal came after Kentucky officials shoveled huge tax incentives Amazon’s way in the way of $40 million in payroll tax breaks. The hub will eventually see more than 200 takeoffs and landings a day. Kentucky officials say the project will spur economic development throughout the region.
• Ohio Gov. John Kasich has put forward his last budget before he’s term limited out as governor next year. What’s in it? Well, tons of stuff because it’s a $144 billion document designed to guide an entire state’s fiscal policy for two years, but let’s walk through Kasich’s tax proposals really quick. First, there’s a huge regressive tax shift in there — a 17-percent reduction in personal income tax offset by a big $2 billion boost in sales taxes, which fall disproportionately on lower-income residents of Ohio. Kasich would also like to see the number of items that qualify for sales taxes expanded. On the income tax side, Kasich would like to lower the rate for the state’s top income tax bracket from 4.95 percent to 4.33 percent by 2018. He’d also boost a personal income tax exemption for those making up to $80,000 a year. There are tons of other proposals affecting education, health care and economic development in the budget. Dive in here to start, and look for more in-depth coverage soon.
• President Trump yesterday announced his pick for the spot on the U.S. Supreme Court vacated by the death of staunch conservative justice Antonin Scalia. His choice? Neil Gorsuch, another staunch conservative who looks likely to fill Scalia’s shoes. Check out more about his appointment and how his Senate confirmation process is likely to unfold here.
• While we’re talking about Trump’s appointments, how are Ohio’s two senators voting on the ones who have been confirmed so far? Well, if you were counting on them to oppose Trump’s often unconventional, even unqualified choices, don’t keep holding your breath. Both Republican U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, who withdrew support from Trump late in the election, and U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, have largely rolled over for Trump so far.
Portman has voted to approve all five of Trump’s major picks who have gone through confirmation. Brown, the supposed progressive firebrand, has voted for four out of the five — Secretary of Defense James Mattis, Secretary of Homeland Security John F. Kelly, Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki R. Haley and Secretary of Transportation Elaine L. Chao. He also voted, as a member of the Senate Banking Committee, to approve neurosurgeon Ben Carson to be Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, despite Carson’s lack of experience in the field and his previous admissions that he isn’t qualified to run a federal agency. Brown did vote against CIA director Mike Pompeo, participated with other Democrats in an unsuccessful Senate Finance Committee boycott today against Treasury secretary nominee Steve Mnuchin and Department of Health and Human Services secretary nominee Tom Price, and has signaled that he will oppose Trump’s pick for Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and Supreme Court nominee Gorsuch.
• Finally, the news has been kind of grim lately, but here’s a new level of darkness: the nation’s bacon reserves are dwindling to their lowest levels in half a century. That’s right. We’re reaching crisis level.
This article appears in Feb 1-8, 2017.