Do you want to be an American idiot? It's only dunbound.
Seven hundred will held up to the news yesterday of the Hamlin County commissioned. It is the topic that keeps on giving. The property tax rebid in Hamlin County. Commissions are proving four and a half percent for next year, and that, of course, way far away from the thirty percent promise. When voters approved the half cent tax levy and the tax increase in ninety six to fund stadium construction.
The vote was two to one, and the no vote on it, of course, is from our good front Commissioner Alicia Reese, who joins the show this morning on seven hundred w ALW. Madam Commissioner, glad to speak with you.
Good, good to be heard this, Yeah, I gotcha.
All right.
So we've taught we I think we've talked this a lot. You know, one year we had the thirty percent, got that back promised. Okay, now it's four and a half percent. The approved rate of four and a half percent. If given it'd be like thirty two million. This is just five million. And I look at the numbers and you have been the loan dissenting void of on this one too. Two years ago. I think it was the full thirty percent we got that back. What changed in the last couple of years.
Yeah, well, let me just say that, you know, when I ran this my sex time being re elected. But when I ran, I got down there, they were at single digits, which is where they're at now on the property tax rollback that was promised to the voters. And I had said that, you know, I came on your show and your listeners and we were able to get the thirty percent had never been really introduced, and we had the thirty percent because we have to do it
every single year. One of the things that I saw was that it was a promise made to the taxpayers, but they never wanted to put it in writing, and they were hoping that the taxpayers would not be paying attention. And so I think what makes this one significant is that when we started looking at the biggles, when we start going to the Bengal negotiations, that's when this particular county commission board they.
Wrote the taxpayers out.
They voted for something to go against what the taxpayers were promised. Because as you could see in the Business Courier, the headline with County property tax rebate looks to take a major hits new Bengals lease is the factor, and that's the factor we keep in the promise to the stadiums, but not the promise to the over two hundred thousand homeowners.
We've got two sets of talking points. Long one.
When it comes to the taxpayers and homeowners. They bring out a set of talking points from the administrators and my colleagues and they say, hey, we can't do this. It's fiscally irresponsible. We don't have any money. They brought a chart out I'd never seen chart. It's going downward
and we might go bankrupt. My colleague Disease three House have put in the paper that because we went with thirty percent, which she voted against, a tax break for the homeowners and thirty percent because of that, we we just can't do it and we're going bankrupt. Then they got another set of talking points when the Bengals lease came, Oh, this is a great thing.
We got to do it.
Over three hundred and fifty million dollars and an eight hundred million dollar deal with interest, nothing for the taxpayers.
They were toasting it up.
We did it, We did it, and we and we screwed the Hamilton County taxpayers. That's not irresponsible. They didn't say it was irresponsible when it's a fund that does sales tax and the Bengals were exempt from sales tax. Maybe that reason why the fund is going down. But
they got to set another set. And then just the other day they had some talking points and they said, oh, we've got to do this redevelopment again of the banks, which is eight hundred million dollars with some tables and chairs and some spaces where people can hear free music.
They went to.
Clap it and we got the money. When we wanted to do sundance and I supported someday, but we didn't get it. We came up the administrator says, I got a rabbit out of the hat. Here's another two million dollars. We can do it. Well, we were going to do another thing that we needed. He went into the rabbit in the hat.
We can do it.
So it's a magic show down at the county that I have observed since i've been there. And then it was said that my colleague said, well, maybe if we don't do the thirty percent and we'll keep collecting, we'll be able to do more in the future. Well, we've done this for thirty years. Twenty four of those years I wasn't even there. So where was this collection? Because for twenty four years we've been in single digits. Twenty four years, we haven't done the thirty percent, So where
is this collection of money that they're referring to. We gave them twenty four years. I gave them twenty four years before I got there, and then I introduced the thirty percent. And now all of sudden you say that because of the homeowners getting a break, we're bankrupting the fund. So there's two sets of talking points. It's a every time we get ready for this season, as you know song, it's a magic show the administrator. When certain people want something,
my colleagues come out and jump. We found the money for the Bengals. If we didn't have the money, maybe we should have got a different deal.
If the fund was going.
Bankrupt, maybe we should have said, no, Bengals, you cannot be exempt from sales tax because we use sales tax to fund the stadium. Maybe we should have said no, we need a deal like Denver, where less public money. They almost have no public money going in and they're going to have a brand new stadium. So to say that it's the homeowner's fault, we got to penalize the homeowners. We can't help the homeowners. The other argument that they said was a thirty percent. I mean, you're not getting
that much money back, sloans. If Kroger's, I've seen Krogers say we're gonna have five and ten percent off, and people bust the door down to get that five and ten percent. You use that little card because you want to get a percentage off on your gas. People are looking for affordability break, and any break we can give them is important. Right now now Sloans. Just yesterday they went with not giving the homeowners the full thirty percent rebate, right and then they're getting ready to vote on a
budget that will increase your sewer bill. So now we're gonna that's that's adding another four percent. They added four percent last year.
I disagreed. I voted no.
So that's eight percent. You almost had to ten percent in two years where your bill is going up. So we're gonna make the bill go up. We're not gonna give you the break that we that you were promised. We're gonna keep the promise to the Bengals, but all of a sudden, no promise to the homeowners. We have to pay for this. It's two hundred thousand homeowners that need to break. And then we also the administrator has proposed in his budget and it might go I'm gonna
fight against it. Now we also want to add to the closing costs.
Yeah, the property transfer tax.
I was going to bring that up as well, and I'll fold in you know, you know, and again it's a probably not fair to bring this up, but I think it's the headline about more taxes, right, the one percent tax around the Convention Center district for food and bars.
If you partake in that kind of stuff. So it it.
And you know that's outside of the scope too, because that's a choice. It's not mandatory like animals you've got to buy stuff every But at the same time, I mean, we add up, we add all that up stuff, we add it all together. Right, It but still a fee that people are going to pay.
No, wait a minute, well that's a good points you made. You're gonna add a one percent tax if you eat around a certain area. They have it in other areas.
But it's at a.
Property that the county before I got there.
Now they voted.
It's there as a fifty two million dollars Millennium hotel was there. It's fifty two million dollars it cost to get rid of it and tear it down, and then you're replacing it with something that you're not making any money. This one percent doesn't go to the county.
This is going to three CDC. You don't get no money back.
Fifty two million dollars down the two and you put something there that doesn't make any money.
That'll make money though, because you're going to bring people from out of town to spend money and pay those taxes.
That's that's why they're doing it. Makes sense.
Well wait a minute, hold that, Okay, fifty If the taxpayers put out fifty two million, then we're not getting anything from that that goes to the developers, so we get zero. That's what I'm saying. What I said on your show, and I broke in first with you, was that I told the administrator, I said, why don't we get the liquor license down there so that we can get the funding back to the county. Coffer and he's
supposed to be looking at it. But anytime I say something of that magnitude, he's looking at it, and he's looking at it Like I said, it's a magic show. You know, there's a movie out called Now You see Me? Now you don't. That's what's happening down at the county. One minute. If you have an idea to bring money in to help the taxpayers, that all of a sudden, we can't do it. If you want to give the homeowners a break, you can't do it. If you want to get a taxpayers a break, you can't do it.
Then all of a sudden, over here, like you just say it, there's a tax but we're not benefiting for him, and the homeowner's not benefiting from it. Nothing is going back to help us get a break. Is going to a developer. All of a sudden, it's a great idea, we're moving in the wrong direction. And also there's a lot of funds down there at the county. I'm trying to get my hands around it, because all of a sudden, I said, give me, where are all the funds, where's our money?
What's in here? They don't give it to me.
And then all of a sudden, when certain people call there's a rabbit out of the hat.
We can do it, bigs, Okay.
Don't worry about this.
Well, Denise, we can't do it.
Yeah, I think Denise Threehouse said that. By the way, Alisha Reesa on the show this morning of the property tax we bit, she said, I think called the last time we did the full three thirty one thirty two million dollars rebate irresponsible. It is irresponsible Black and THEYR responsible now and quoted some figures that they fund the reserve fund. Is that forty seven percent of maximum at MAXI manual debt service the recommended numbers eighty five percent?
Uh so, who's if you're somebod who listen to this right now and you're in the county Hamlin, County, Lisha Reese, you're looking at going, who am I supposed to believe on this?
Either we have the money or we don't have the money.
Yeah, well, it's well onness. Me and her have a difference of opinion. I am not for raising taxes, so we're gonna always disagree. She voted against giving the homeowners the break last time. She was the one vote that voted against it. But to put up that is irresponsible, is disingenuous. Her and the administrator are together. Every time you hear the administrator is almost like an extension of the staff.
Because, by the way, where was.
The chart when you look at that fund, you got to look at the stadium. So before you do a stadium deal, you got to put all the chips on the table.
So it was.
Irresponsible to do a stadium deal knowing that you wouldn't be able to give a break to the homeowners. That's why I wanted to take it to the ballot. It's not about who should have taxpayers believe. I'm for putting it to the taxpayers and letting them have a say. If you take the taxpayers off the ballot and not have a say, now you just turn it over down to the administration. Now, I'll be honest with you. When
I came in, I came in. I'm the newest member of the three, and I came in because people said they wanted me to shake it up, open up the process, and fight for the taxpayers first. And so that's where I'm coming from. So we all got differences of who we you know, what we believe and so forth. But I'm looking at the numbers. The Bengals deal, and the headline was right in the courier is the reason the
fund is going the way it's going. The fact that they're not paying any sales tax themselves is the reason that the fund is going bankrupt. So her belief is blame the homeowners. Mine is, let's look at who's getting who's benefiting from the fund, and it's not the homeowners. And I believe that we could have done both if we would have gotten a better deal. But if you don't get a whole house away, and now you come back to the people who elected us and you tell
them we can't do it. We can't keep your promise, but we can keep the famis to the Bengals. I think from the voters that voted for me the two hundred eighteen thousand, they're saying, that's a bunch of crap, and then to come back on the same thing and pile on and say now we're going to go up on your stewer rate. The people that voted for me two underd eighteen thousand said that's a bunch of bull and then to come back and say, now we're going to balance the budget by now even adding this real
estate transfer fee. You know, the realators, the investors, real estate investors, the real estate homeowners, all of them have come out over seventy five two hundred members. And they didn't even get the courtesy of even being talked.
To the Board of Realtors.
They didn't even get the home Builders Association, they didn't even get the courtesy of getting a phone call. And so they have come out. So the experts who are in this have come out and said this is going to hurt us as a county because people will now move to other counties. The people who do this every day for living and also pay taxes have said that rent will go up because the landlord's now got to pass this this property tax on to somebody, and they're
going to pass it on. And then, as you know, Sloan, there was articles that the in Choir is doing on these senior citizens, and they had one of them that I brought up. Gentlemen seventy three years old, always worked his whole life, painted bills, had his home and now getting ready to lose his home because the property tax has jumped up triple and after his Social Security check he only has he pays that right the property tax.
He only has forty dollars left to pay for medicine, gas, and electric et cetera.
The state is the states working on a plan to help folks like that, which is a good thing. Finally, Alisia Reese, Oh, you also started to change that ORG petition for residents of voice. Does that really carry that much weight? I mean it changed that ORG. It doesn't really influence it then, does it.
Well, what we want to do is every year we have to vote on this, and it always comes at the last second, so people might can't get down there. I want to start now and hear from the people directly, and so therefore that's why we put the petition out there, so we could hear from the people directly. I'm hearing from them, am I out in the community, But I want to make sure they understand my colleagues. They may say, oh, it's two to one. No, it's not two to one.
I got two hundred and eighteen thousand voters. But now let's hear from the I'm trying to let them hear from the homeowners themselves. And so this petition will it won't stop to thirty percent this time, but we would be prepared next time. But secondly, it can also impact the budget that we're getting ready to do with the additional feed for the transfer tax, and so we'll be
fighting for that. So the reason we're doing this is to try to give the people a chance to be heard, and then we'll be prepared so when we go in they say, hey, here's what the people are saying. And I do think it can make a difference because Sloan, they didn't. They told me we could never get thirty percent. I came on here and we fought, like hell, we got it my first year. We came on here, we fought like hell, we got it another year, and so
we just got to keep fighting. But if you get quiet, they're hoping you get quiet.
They're hoping you don't know.
We're hoping that you only a few people know what's going on, and then by the time you get your bill, it's too late because the vote has already been tanged.
She is, she's preaching the gods with the lead show reason. I know you had a health scare and I wasn't aware of that, but I'm so glad that unfortunately got great treatment, great healthcare. You see, and you're doing much much better. So it's good to have you back in the game and speaking truth of powers.
Great.
Yeah, I got great health care mercy Jews. Yeah, the nurses and the doctors, and my doctor said it could have been fatal. So I just wanted to be very spiritual. I want to thank God, but I want to take those doctors and nurses. And while I was there, what are nurses? That came on the TV. They didn't know who I was, and the property tax came on and she says, oh, man, I me and my husband we can't afford to go up. And so that's why I went to the meeting yesterday, even though you're.
Not supposed to be doing it. Will you get shut the hell up and get some rest? Would you go?
I'll go lay down down, put your.
Feed up, elevate, get get the coughs on your ear legs to keep the DVT away, and uh live to fight another day. God bless you, Alicia, Thanks for coming on. Thank you take care of it's a Scott Slum show. One of my favorite all time guests. Right there, Alicia, she just she just spits. Man, she just goes well, say hi, and man, I can go get coffee. Come on back, she's still talking. She's the best right there. That's great.
Scott Slung Show, seven hundred w ald