Cincinnati (city and county) leadership is awful. Scott Sloan said it best: it's the only place I know of where a victim becomes a suspect and a suspect becomes a victim. Murder reached an all-time high in 2006 and it seems the leaders struggle to find the reason -- much less, a solution. Major retail stores are moving out and city revenue is a disaster. It has nothing to do with party affiliation or ideology. It has everything to do with a leaderless city.
Hamilton county is trying to find revenue by demanding money from the Bengals. The county Commissioners told the team to pay $2.9 million for "unpaid rent for Paul Brown Stadium." The team said they're not paying.
Hamilton County and the team agreed to defer the Bengals' $2.9 million rent for 2002 and 2003 until the issue was resolved by all three parties - the IRS, the Bengals and Hamilton County.
President of the Hamilton County Commission, Todd Portune, ain't happy neither. Funny thing is that Portune now wants to sit with the team to hash out the three issues -- "unpaid rent, a fight over who pays for the installation of synthetic turf and a federal antitrust lawsuit between the two sides". Portune is concerned mostly about the development of the 10-year mythical development of the Banks that's been nothing but talk.
The tax issue was resolved in 2004 between the IRS and the team -- Hamilton county was not involved in the $2.5 million settlement. Therefore, the team isn't paying the 2003 and 2004 rent because the county wasn't involved. In fact, now the county is paying the team the first of three payments for the artificial turf that cost $900,000. Then, in "turn, the Bengals paid their" $1.1 million "in stadium rent for the 2006 season".