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The passenger rail issue isn’t even on the ballot yet, and it’s already causing some red-hot sparks. City leaders debated a line in the proposed ballot initiative at Tuesday’s rules committee meeting, where officials haggled over the phrase “may not spend any monies” for passenger rail projects. City Councilwoman Roxanne Qualls and Chris Finney, attorney for the anti-tax group COAST, sparred over whether the measure, if approved by voters, might require additional voter approval to spend federal or state funds to build passenger rail.
Opponents to two high-profile projects in Cincinnati have turned in signatures to get the issues placed before voters this fall. A coalition of groups, including the NAACP and COAST, worked to get the signatures so that voters can decide if the city should spend $200 million on a streetcar project and consider turning the water system into a regional water district.