Hamilton County Commissioner Todd Portune is proposing another increase in the Hamilton County sales tax. Raising the sales tax without a vote of the electorate will be among the options discussed at two hearings on the proposed tax increase.

The hearings will be held Wednesday, February 10 at 9:30 AM and again on Wednesday, February 17 at 9:30 AM. Both public sessions will be in the County Commission offices on the 6th floor of the County Administration Building, 138 East Court Street Cincinnati, Ohio 45202. You are encouraged to attend the meetings and testify against the tax increase.

If you cannot attend the meeting, please call or write your Commissioners and tell them that you are opposed to an increase in the sales tax.

Todd Portune
phone: 513-946-4401
fax: 513-946-4446
email: todd.portune@hamilton-co.org

David Pepper
phone: 513-946-4409
fax: 513-946-4407
email: david.pepper@hamilton-co.org

Greg Hartmann
phone: 513-946-4405
fax: 513-946-4404
email: greg.hartmann@hamilton-co.org

You will recall that in 2006, Hamilton County voters rejected a sales tax increase for a new jail. Not understanding that message, Commissioners Portune and Pepper tripled the size of that tax and implemented a sales tax in 2007 without a public vote. A unique coalition of the NAACP, COAST, the Green Party and the Libertarian Party united to place the issue before the voters and defeat the tax, despite more than $1 million spent by tax advocates.

Because of massive over-spending, Stadium Fund faces deficit

The sales tax increase Commissioner Portune is proposing is to address the deficit in the County’s Stadium Fund. Since democrats Portune and Peppert have taken control of the County Commission, and knowing that the Stadium Fund was broke, Portune and Pepper have committed to $90 million in new spending on the Banks infrastructure, and Commissioners have spent more than $20 million on outside counsel. This and other mis-spending has driven a Stadium Fund deficit that requires a tax increase or a subsidy from the County's general fund in 2011.

It is on four separate sales tax increase proposals that the Commission is having public hearings this week and next, including two that will again bypass voters. Please let the Hamilton County Commissioners know that you oppose any increase in the sales tax.