Property tax rollback

You've heard of "shoot first and ask questions later"?

Cincinnati City Council is poised to "raise taxes first and debate spending cuts later." A Finance Committee majority voted Monday to suspend the property tax rollback and let the city manager raise taxes up to 4.83 mills to collect an extra $1.5 million. The full council will vote Wednesday -- before the city manager even submits his two-year budget to the mayor.

OK, it's not big money compared to the city's expected $28 million deficit in 2008, and new manager Milton Dohoney says, "We're in a race to mediocrity," but we're also in a race with families and businesses heading out of Dodge. Shouldn't council at least study spending cuts before it raises taxes? In a shrinking city, suspending a property tax rollback is no way to create an image that Cincinnati is business and homeowner-friendly.

This -- right after property tax revaluations and when homeowners already fear Hamilton County will cancel its property tax rollback because of slack stadium tax revenues, and when legislators keep ignoring the Ohio Supreme Court's call to reduce reliance on property taxes to fund Ohio schools.

Cincinnati Council members Jeff Berding, John Cranley and Leslie Ghiz voted to keep rolling back property taxes to hold the total constant.

David Crowley, Chris Bortz, James Tarbell and Cecil Thomas grabbed for the easy money and voted to let city property taxes rise. Think we ought to bombard this facile foursome with phone calls to cut spending first, then debate if taxes need raising?