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Cincinnati Budget Negotiations To Continue Wednesday

Cincinnati Council's Budget and Finance Committee will meet again Wednesday morning to try to put the finishing touches on a budget for the new fiscal year which starts July 1st.  

The committee was supposed to do that Monday.  But work stopped concerning a disagreement over what should be included in an omnibus ordinance.  

Council Member Chris Seelbach said his budget motions were put in three separate ordinances instead of being included in the overall measures for general and capital spending.  

"One of the ten elected people in city hall directed the city solicitor to treat me different," Seelbach said. "To not include my budget motion and that they can't tell us who because it's privileged.  But it was one of us that directed them to treat me different than everyone else."

Seelbach wants $90,000 for Keep Cincinnati Beautiful's Future Blooms program, $185,000 to repair hillside steps in the city, and $5,000 for TV monitors in the council chamber to make it easier to see video presentations.  

Council Member Yvette Simpson said she is disappointed with the process.

"This could have been a much smoother process," Simpson said. "If we had respected the fact that individual members of council have done their diligence, that there is capacity for all of these things to happen, and to have any individual under the guise of privilege or otherwise try to pit these things against each other, when it's a relatively small amount of money is disgusting to me."

The committee did approve the ordinances to enact the city manager's recommended budget and also passed Mayor Cranley's changes including several neighborhood projects.  

The full council could vote on a spending plan tomorrow afternoon.
 

Jay Hanselman brings more than 10 years experience as a news anchor and reporter to 91.7 WVXU. He came to WVXU from WNKU, where he hosted the local broadcast of All Things Considered. Hanselman has been recognized for his reporting by the Kentucky AP Broadcasters Association, the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists, and the Ohio AP Broadcasters.