The One Where I Agree with COAST

The Hamilton County Commission recently gave the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Film Commission a nice fat check for $75,000. At a time when you have the commission attempting to force a tax increase onto a constituency that already voted down an increase for a new jail, this sort of spending is just not demonstrative of fiscal responsibility.

Enter COASTers Tom Brinkman and Mark Miller... They are suing the county and the City of Cincinnati saying that the payoff was illegal. The Cincinnati Enquirer picks up the story from here:

They say law allows the money be spent only on construction, promotion or operation of a convention center or to pay off the convention center’s debt. The Film Commission is a non-profit organization that markets Greater Cincinnati to makers of movies, commercials, music videos and other such productions.

“I do not believe, after several readings of the law, that the Film Commission fits the tourism and promotion aspect” of the law, Brinkman said. “This is another example of our county commissioners wasting money as opposed to being good stewards of our tax dollars.”

As you might expect, Commissioner Todd Portune doesn't agree:

“The Film Commission, in addition to bringing in in films and projects, books a lot of hotel rooms and restaurants,” he said. “They spend a lot of effort to bring that to Hamilton County. That is squarely within the legal confines.”

Whether or not it is legal, it doesn't feel right. Here is how the Enquirer describes where this money came from and how it is supposed to be used:

In 2002 the city and county raised the hotel-motel tax to 6.5 percent to generate money for the expansion of the Duke Energy Center downtown. The county’s portion of the tax exceeded expectations last year, generating $5.65 million – $1.67 million of which was surplus. In February the county amended the agreement to allow some of the surplus to go to the Northern Cincinnati Convention and Visitors Bureau for the expansion of the Sharonville Convention Center. The agreement noted that the CVB could allot up to $75,000 of that to the Film Commission.

You can put me down as standing with COAST on this one.