Councilmember Cecil Thomas says taking controversial proposals off table could help pass budget

CINCINNATI - There's still no agreement on a new budget for the City of Cincinnati, but there is some hope that taking some of the more controversial proposals off the table could make it easier to pass a budget before the New Year's Eve deadline.

The full City Council and the Council's budget committee met briefly Wednesday for a few seconds and then adjourned, so more private budget discussions could be held.

One plan that's gaining some traction is a proposal from Councilmember Cecil Thomas to eliminate both the proposed trash fee and any immediate plans to put out garbage collection to bids from private firms. That's been referred to as the "managed competition" option.

Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory held the full city council session Wednesday morning where he assured residents and city workers that progress was being made on coming up with a budget before the deadline in two days.

Although there was no public discussion of the individual budget plans, Thomas is continuing to talk up his plan for simply eliminating the trash fee and garbage privatization out of the new budget.

Thomas says those ideas can still be studied next year as policy proposals and not budget plans. "It's clear if the biggest disagreements and controversy are over these two proposals, then maybe we can get a budget passed that doesn't contain either plan. We'll still have a considerable number of layoffs, no matter what we do. But without these proposals we can better determine how severe those cuts will have to be."

We may get a better idea of whether Thomas' proposal is gaining support when the budget committee meets again at 2 p.m. which will be followed one hour later by a meeting of the full council.

Mayor Mallory has already called for full council meetings at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Thursday if neither of Wednesday's meetings come up with majority support for any particular budget plan.Another meeting of the budget committee has also been scheduled for Thursday at 1 p.m.

If Cincinnati City Council does not approve a new budget by New Years' Eve, it's believed the city could go to a judge to get approval to use a continuation budget for as long as 90 days. That plan would call for even deeper cuts in police, fire and other city departments than has previously been discussed.