Two of the Tri-State's most popular attractions are hoping to get your help at the ballot box this fall. A pair of tax levy proposals for the
Union Terminal and the
Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County will be on the ballot.
The levy proposals together will cost a Hamilton County homeowner with a home valued at $100,000 about $40 a year. That would include a $10 renewal for the museum center and $30 for the library.
Museum center officials says the tax money it hopes to collect will go towards helping rebuild the almost 80-year-old building.
Although the museum center has had a very successful year and run of shows and exhibits, it says it can't charge visitors enough to rebuild the classic Cincinnati landmark.
The President of the Museum Center, Doug McDonald, says the museum center levy is "all about fixing and repairing the historic Union Terminal building." McDonald says after almost 80 years, "there is deep steel and concrete repair work that needs to be done to keep Union Terminal the way it is."
Library officials say the problem for them is a very quick dropoff in state funding over the last decade. The worst of that dropoff has happened in the last year. According to library officials, the system gets 90 percent of its funding from the state. In the last year, that has dropped by almost 20 percent.
The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County is asking for its first local tax levy in almost 40 years because it has lost so much state money. Surprisingly, it currently gets no money from either the city or the county.
Library Fiscal Officer Patricia Schoettker says they have cut staff, hours and services to the bone. She adds the Library has actually dipped into its gift and capital building budgets to help pay phone and electric bills through the end of the year.
The two levy proposals, along with renewals and changes for the Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities and an Alcohol and Drug Treatment levies, aren't final yet. In the next two to three weeks, the Hamilton County commissioners must decide if they'll go on the ballot in November. Once they make their decision, Hamilton County voters will get to decide if the issues become law.
