The fund resulting from the sale of the Cincinnati Southern Railway dropped by about $81 million in March, shortly after the Iran war began. The fund has since rebounded and is up 3.1% year-to-date.
The fund reached an all-time high of $1.9 billion at the end of February; as of May 18, it sits at about $1.89 billion.
The Cincinnati Southern Railway Board of Trustees oversees the fund, with investment manager UBS Investment Group.
Eric Goia from UBS told the Board at Tuesday's quarterly meeting they're very pleased with the fund's performance.
"Geopolitics drive headlines and volatility, not necessarily long-term market trends," Goia said. "We constructed a portfolio to withstand volatility, and it's doing just that."
The fund balance is up $31 million (3.16%) year-to-date, despite the temporary drop in March and even after sending the city two quarterly disbursements totaling $28 million.
Since inception in March 2024, the fund has had an annualized growth of 9.79%.
Fees paid so far this fiscal year (July 1, 2025 through March 31, 2026) total about $1.3 million. Fees are determined as a percentage of the fund, meaning fees are higher when the portfolio is performing well.
Spending the money faster
Cincinnati officials report some progress on spending money from the sale of the Cincinnati Southern Railway.
The city has $56 million to spend in fiscal year 2026, which ends June 30. Although City Council has allocated all of it for specific projects, only 14% has actually been spent with another 37% under contract. That's marginally better than earlier this year.
"We are not where we want to be in terms of spend," said Public Services Deputy Director Dan Bower.
He says changes the city announced in February have been implemented successfully, including giving the Department of Public Services a project management role for other departments with fewer staffing resources.
"I'll use the health department as an example ... they hardly had any spend at the start of the fiscal year," Bower said. "When our team took them over ... and [started] working with them, coming up with their priorities, pushing those expeditiously through our processes, we were able to move the needle significantly on their spend number."
Bower says a new interim chief procurement officer has shortened the timeline for bidding projects to contractors, a process that is governed by state law and local policy.
"She has done a phenomenal job of allowing alternative methods of procurement, which help us get architects or engineers or contractors under contract quicker, cutting months off construction timelines, which is a huge help to getting projects underway.
The next fiscal year begins July 1. The general fund, which is part of the operating budget, is facing a $29.5 million deficit. The capital budget is separate; the railway trust Board has agreed to send the city $58 million for the fiscal year 2027 capital budget.
City Manager Sheryl Long is expected to release her budget draft, along with Mayor Aftab Pureval's adjustments, on Friday. City Council has until the end of June to make any changes and pass a final budget.
Read more:
- Why it's taking so long to spend money from the sale of the city-owned railway
- $5M federal grant will replace Cincinnati's old recycling carts, expand recycling access
- Council moves to shift some railway spending to get projects done faster
- Learn the basics of city government from WVXU's new newsletter
