City Hall’s Developer Problem

We have a corruption problem plaguing our city government and it’s being carried out by elected officials and their developer buddies. The corruption has taken form in a complex web of things known as tax abatements, tax increment financing (TIFs) and campaign contributions. TIFs and abatements are things the typical Cincinnatian doesn’t even know exists. And that is the exact reason why the politicians and developers use things like TIFs and abatements as the avenue to spin their dirty quid-pro-quo schemes. Of course, some transactions between developer and elected official were much more straight forward and votes were exchanged for literal bags of cash to two specific councilmembers. The corruption problem has been rattling around in my brain ever since I got involved with politics here in Cincinnati and it’s maddening.

Historically, most of our elected officials in Cincinnati typically were at the beck and call of the major corporations like Kroger and P&G, but a new band of power players emerged in the mid-to-late 2000s who wanted a piece of the that sweet public money pie. With the birth of 3CDC in 2003, it became open season on using tax payer funds to enrich developers in the name of “development” and “progress.” The problem just snowballed from there and we now have an affordable housing crisis and our city somehow ended up letting a private entity like 3CDC control public spaces like Washington Park and Fountain Square.  3CDC has no accountability to the tax payers or voters and that’s exactly the way people like Charlie Luken and John Cranley have always wanted it. But let’s not dredge up ancient history because I am sure we are all well aware of the gentrification machine known as 3CDC and how they’ve negatively affected low-income Cincinnatians and pushed them out of their homes for the past two decades. What I really want to discuss is this symbiotic relationship between elected officials and the developers who have business in front of our city.

Mayoral candidate, Gavi Begtrup, was the first mayoral candidate to publicly reject any campaign donations from corporate political action committees (PACs) as well as any donation from a developer with possible business in front of the city. I haven’t ever spoken to Gavi, but he explains in a video posted to Twitter that Cincinnati residents deserve a government that works for them and that Cincinnati businesses deserve a fair playing field. Begtrup challenged all other mayoral candidates to do the same but so far, he’s only heard back from David Mann. Naturally, Mann rejected the proposal and is happily accepting campaign donations from developers and Corporate PACs. And let’s not forget when David Mann shut down a Budget and Finance committee hearing in June of 2020 because he got tired of residents telling him to shift tax dollars away from the police into social programs the city offers and supports. He’s extremely out of touch and possesses archaic views on how the city should be ran. Which is exactly why he’s perfectly comfortable taking campaign contributions from developers and Corporate PACs while at the same time giving away public dollars and publicly owned property to private entities.

I personally applaud Gavi Begtrup for challenging all mayoral candidates to reject campaign contributions from developers and Corporate PACs. The developers in this city know how the game is played and they play it well. They donate massive amounts of money to a candidate’s campaign and simply look at it as the price to play ball if you want to be a developer in the City of Cincinnati. John Cranley believes it’s the mayor’s job to insert himself into the negotiations with developers (it is not) and personally dictate terms of development deals to the city administration. Thanks in large part to his “hands on” approach with developers, $4 out of every $10 Cranley has raised for his campaign for governor comes from a developer. These developers know who butters their bread, and they reward those politicians handsomely when campaign season rolls around. When in doubt, just follow the money on the campaign finance reports. Campaign finance reports reveal the truth about who a candidate really is and I’ll be investigating those soon enough. Until next time…