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Voters in Mason will have the chance to thwart an “extreme deficit situation,” according to one council member, in the city’s safety, fire and EMS services budget this fall.

Mason City Council approved a charter amendment Monday that will go before voters on the Nov. 6 ballot.

• View the proposed charter amendment (PDF link)

The proposed ballot measure would add a 0.12 percent income tax on top of its existing 1 percent income tax, though only for nonresidents.

Anyone who works in Mason pays the current income tax, although Mason residents who work in another community with a 1 percent income tax don’t pay Mason’s income tax.

An estimated 21,000 people work in the city, which is home to more than 1,100 businesses. Sixty percent of people who pay Mason income taxes live outside the city, according to Councilman Tom Grossmann.

The fire income tax and the existing income tax would cost someone working 40 hours a week at $10 an hour $4.48 a week. That’s 48 cents a week more than what he or she pays now.

The proposed charter amendment also includes a property tax levy for fire/EMS not to exceed 5 mills.

The city has a 5-mill property tax levy for fore and EMS scheduled to expire at the end of 2013.

The 5-mill levy, which would take effect Jan. 1, 2014, would cost the owner of a $100,000 home about an extra $18 a year if council decided to take the full 5 mills.

The levy under the proposed charter amendment would cost a homeowner more than the existing levy because the new levy is adjusted for inflation.

It also gives City Council the flexibility to set the rate of the proposed levy and the fire income tax.

The proposed ballot measure took nearly a year to draft and included many “heated moments,” said Mason Mayor David Nichols.

Some of those exchanges spilled into Monday’s meeting.

Mason resident Tom Muennich, a former city councilman, admonished council members for the tax hike.

“It is unheard of for anyone to put taxes on just because of our inability to raise revenue,” he said. “We, the voters, have one recourse and that’s not to vote you back in.”

Several residents expressed disapproval of raising income taxes on people who work in Mason, but don’t live there.

“How is that fair and just for that increase to be handed off onto other people, who, quite frankly, don’t have a vote?,” asked Joey Dezenzo.

Council members also sparred over the income tax hike for fire/EMS services.

Councilman Victor Kidd said an income tax increase would create an “unnecessary controversy as an unfair, reoccurring tax policy in the city of Mason.”

“Increasing the earnings tax could be perceived as a slick political strategy having not passed the last tax levy,” he warned. “Increasing the earnings tax to fund fire services opens the door to other incremental increases, which leads us down a slippery slope.”

He also said that the city’s 1 percent income tax served as a recruiting point for new businesses.

Councilman Don Prince disagreed, arguing that Mason’s income tax rates are among the lowest in the region.

“I don’t think it will affect our ability to attract businesses,” he said. “Nobody gets to vote where they work unless they work where they live. Most communities do it that way.”

Councilman Rich Cox said the income tax hike on nonresidents would create a “clerical nightmare” for business owners by taxing resident and nonresident employees at two different rates.

He recommended eliminating the property tax and enacting a flat 0.25 percent income tax increase.

Grossman, however, said such a plan would create an unfair burden on working people, the majority of whom don’t live in Mason, he said.

The city responds to about twice as many fire calls at homes and apartments than at businesses, city statistics show.

“Shouldn’t people who own homes and use services pay for them?” he asked.

Despite cost-cutting measures, the current fire levy does not produce enough money to pay for the 33-member fire department, forcing the city to dip into a fire reserve fund, City Manager Eric Hansen said.

The fire department’s budget runs between $5 million and $6 million.

Exacerbating the department’s funding woes is the elimination of state personal property tax and reimbursement that decreased funding for the fire and EMS operations by more than 12 percent or $700,000 a year, said Hansen.

If voters reject the charter amendment this fall, Hansen said, “We reduce our services or we stabilize our revenues. And council would have to determine whether they want to go back and just change the services. … Or they go back and look at other revenue alternatives.”

Paul McKibben contributed

Posted in: City Council, Election, News |

Tags: Tags: 5-mill levy, ballot, charter amendment, city council, city manager, city of mason, david nichols, don prince, election, eric hansen, fire/ems, income tax, joey dezenzo, mason, nonresidents, property tax, revenues, safety services, tax increase, tom grossmann, tom munnich, tony cox, victor kidd

Paul McKibben reports:

As Mason mayor in 2011, Don Prince gives a proclamation at a Light the Night Walk. Enquirer file/Amanda Davidson

Though he lost his father at a young age, Mason City Councilman Don Prince, who recently completed a term as mayor, has lived a life sprinkled with men who helped mold him.

There was his high school basketball coach Jerry Wood and his high school football coach Tom Griswold.

Then there is the Illinois landlord who helped Prince discover his Christian faith.

Prince grew up in Mariemont and Deer Park, the second of four children (three boys and one girl).

His father was police chief in Mariemont and then served as a lieutenant in Amberley Village’s police department.

When Prince was a sophomore at Deer Park High School, his father died. He had suffered from diabetes.

“It was hard,” Prince said about coping with his father’s death.

But it was sports that helped him. He was a high-jumper on the track team and played basketball and football.

His freshman year, his basketball team didn’t lose a game. Wood coached that team and moved up to the varsity team two years later when Prince was a junior.

Four of the five starters on the team his senior year didn’t have fathers at home.

A brash young man named Bill Cunningham was the only junior that started. The rest were seniors. All five starters averaged double figures in points.

Cunningham went on to fame as a talk show host at WLW-AM.

Prince remembers running into Wood’s wife. She told him her husband tried to be a father to the boys.

“He didn’t go out being like a big brother to us. … He did check up on us and he was a positive male influence in my life,” Prince said.

Prince said today he would be viewed as a child at risk, with no male influence in his life and his older brother away at college.

“These coaches put that discipline in my life that helped me,” Prince said.

(more…)

Posted in: Community, News |

Tags: Tags: city council, city of mason, councilmember, don prince, mason, mayor

Paul McKibben reports:

In December, Mason City Council selected Councilman David F. Nichols to be the city’s new mayor, replacing Don Prince, who remains on council. Nichols was first appointed to council in 2008 and was elected to his own term in 2009. Originally from Lexington, Ky., he’s lived in Mason since 1999.

At one time Nichols was president of Interlott Technologies, which made instant lottery machines. In 2002, Fortune magazine named the business one of the top small companies in the United States. The company was later sold. He’s now retired from business.

Nichols has a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Kentucky. His work experience includes time in Kentucky state government. A cancer survivor, Nichols and his wife Christa have a teenage daughter named Cari.

Nichols talked to The Enquirer recently about his goals as mayor, economic development in Mason and other issues.

What are your goals during the next two years as mayor?

For the very same reasons I came on council and what they have been for the last three years, given my business experience and that I served in state government – economic development and finance. Mason changed drastically even in the years that I’ve been up here. You had a great period of growth. Then the economy faltered. Where Mason is so fortunate compared to other places is that there have been a lot of smart decisions made prior to me. But the revenues are not what they used to be. It’s easy to build things and do things when the revenue and money is coming in. It’s different when that doesn’t happen and you’ve got long-term costs and so forth. You will find a direct correlation between the standard of living in a community and how healthy that business community is.

What challenges are facing Mason and how will the city address them?

Stabilize our revenues. It’s job retention and job growth. Economic development is the key for us. The vast majority of the city government’s revenues come from the earnings tax. One percent. We’re still one of the lowest in the state. A lot of people get confused that we get the majority of the property tax. That’s not the case. That goes elsewhere to different places and ours comes from earnings. We’re still one of the lowest and we’ve done it to be pro-business as much as possible.

Mason is the second largest city/township in Warren County with a population of 30,712 people according to the 2010 Census. It grew by 39.5 percent. Is the city growing too fast?

No. I think you went through a period in the late ’90s and 2000s that Mason was faced with challenges because of all of the growth. Mason had to make a lot of hard decisions early on and a lot of political battles were fought. And this is not unique to Mason. The population growth I think has stabilized but the goal will be to grow the business population. We’ve got a lot of available land. You can’t be bringing in hundreds of jobs and not experience some growth.

Why do you think people have chosen to live in Mason?

We love that small-town feel and at the same time a city government long before I was involved that really put an emphasis on family. The park system’s second to none. They were spending their money fairly wisely at the time given the revenues coming in. They were planning. The way they laid the city out in the comprehensive plan. It’s a good conservative region. I felt there was a lot of opportunity. They were doing it right and it was a new enough community with all of this growth so much that took place in the ’90s, they had a chance to do it right. A lot of times you go into a place and that window of opportunity was 50 years ago or 60 years ago. You get to learn from other communities’ mistakes when you’re starting that late. We got one of the best school systems in the country. Tax structure. Location. The proximity. We’ve got the arts and the life of a wonderful city to our south, Cincinnati and you got Dayton to the north.

If you could pick one company in the world to relocate to Mason, which would it be and why?

I would go probably with an Apple-type company. One thing I love about the late Steve Jobs is he challenged everybody to think out of the box. Constantly.

Posted in: City Council, News |

Tags: Tags: city council, city of mason, david f. nichols, david nichols, don prince, election, interview, mason, mayor

Mason City Council, 2011-2013. From left: Rich Cox, Don Prince, Mayor David Nichols, Vice Mayor Victor Kidd, Char Pelfrey, Tom Grossmann, Barbara Berry-Spaeth. Photo provided

David Nichols will serve as Mason mayor after being selected by City Council at its organizational meeting on Dec. 1.

Nichols was first appointed to council in the fall of 2008 to fill a vacant seat and was elected to a four-year term in 2009.  He’s served as vice mayor for the past two years.

Council also elected Victor Kidd as vice mayor.  Kidd, a local minister and coffee shop owner, served two terms on Mason’s city council before stepping down in 2009 to lead a church in Hawaii.

Kidd was elected to a four-year term on council last month.  He and Nichols will serve as vice mayor and mayor for two years.

Newly elected council members Tom Grossmann and Barbara Berry-Spaeth were also sworn in at the meeting.

Grossmann, an assistant prosecutor with Hamilton County, served two terms on Mason’s city council from 2001 to 2009 and as mayor from 2007 to 2009.

Berry-Spaeth retired in 2005 from a 20-year career as a caseworker and special needs adoption specialist with the Commonwealth of Kentucky before seeking her first term on council.

Council members serve for four years.

Posted in: City Council, News |

Tags: Tags: barbara berry spaeth, city council, david nichols, don prince, government, mason, mason city council, mayor, politics, tom grossmann, vice mayor, victor kidd

Mason Mayor Don Prince recently honored Mason club Qui Vive on its 110th anniversary.

The club, whose name means “on the alert,” was founded as a literary group in 1901 by 11 area women. It is the longest functioning organization in Mason.

Members encourage cultural development through the research, writing and presentation of papers at least once a year on topics such as travel, history, music, education, science and history.

Community development is also a focus of the group, whose members worked in 1976 to see the passage of House Bill 80 to allow for a library in Mason. Three members were on the first library board when it was dedicated in 1980.

Posted in: Community, News |

Tags: Tags: anniversary, city of mason, club, don prince, mason library, mayor don prince, que vive

Mason City Manager Eric Hansen. Provided photo

Mason officials are among local suburban communities that have downplayed the immediate impact of Ohio’s Issue 2 this past week on city budgets.

Mason City Manager Eric Hansen said the Issue 2 vote’s repeal of Senate Bill 5 wouldn’t have had any immediate effect on the city’s finances.

“(Issue 2) may have changed the long-term trajectory, but the loss in revenues is immediate and long-term. So the math didn’t add up.”

The Enquirer’s Steve Kemme and Amanda Seitz reports that Issue 2′s defeat hasn’t induced panic among other local communities that might gained some financial benefits from its passage.

Communities are far more worried about the loss of Ohio’s estate tax revenue in 2013 and the continued reduction of the state-provided Local Government Fund. Both of these cuts were supported by Republican Gov. John Kasich and the GOP-controlled General Assembly, the same ones who offered Senate Bill 5 as an antidote to local governments’ money woes.

Ohio’s $55.8 billion budget, signed by Kasich in July, slashes the Local Government Fund almost in half over the next two years. That fund provided $665 million for local governments this year. The state budget also eliminates the estate tax, 80 percent of which has gone to local governments.

For many communities, the Local Government Fund and the estate tax revenues accounted for half or more of their budgets. Almost half of Delhi Township’s general fund budget in 2010, for example, came from estate tax revenue. Local Government Fund money made up 29 percent of the $2.1 million general fund budget of Butler County’s Liberty Township last year.

The Issue 2 vote’s repeal of Senate Bill 5 will have, at worst, a minor impact on the communities’ immediate and long-term financial health, according to The Enquirer’s sampling of communities in Hamilton, Butler, Clermont and Warren counties.

In a March press conference with other local elected officials, Mason Mayor Don Prince expressed his support that Senate Bill 5, the collective bargaining bill, could help local governments control costs if it becomes law.

Prince, who was a member at Procter & Gamble for 25 years and is the son of a police officer and a firefighter, insisted that his was not an anti-union position, but a pro-tax position.

Ohio voters defeated Issue 2 Tuesday by overwhelming numbers from across the state.

The referendum repealed SB 5, a collective bargaining overhaul that would have restricted collective bargaining rights and set minimum levels for public employees’ contributions toward their health care costs and retirement benefits.

In Warren County, considered to be among the most conservative counties in the state, Issue 2 narrowly passed, 51.6 percent to 48.4 percent.   The county was one of only six counties in Ohio to vote for the issue.

Posted in: City Council, Election, Government, News |

Tags: Tags: budget, city council, city manager, don prince, election, election 2011, eric hansen, government, issue 2, mason, mayor, ohio, public employees, sb 5, sb5, senate bill 5, taxes, union

Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee’s comments in Mason on Friday have gained national attention and are now ‘blowing up’ say Democratic and liberal groups.

As reported by the Enquirer’s Politics Extra blog, the story has been picked up in Politico, which noted:  ’Huckabee didn’t say he was joking, though the laughter suggests his audience knew he was; a similar riff in Virginia in 2009 drew criticism from Democrats.’

The Huffington Post wrote about it today, and quoted We Are Ohio’s Melissa Fazekas: “These comments reflect an entire campaign of deceit from Issue 2 supporters. They are willing to go to any extremes to keep Ohioans from letting their voices be heard…Enough is enough.”

Liberal Mother Jones picked it up too, adding:  “Given that the fight over SB 5 has been a front line in the national clash over union rights, what happens on November 8 will hardly be a joke.”

Comedy Central’s Indecision blog noted that, “…maybe voter disenfranchisement is not the best subject for jocularity considering the accusations that Ohio Republicans are currently engaging in active attempts to disenfranchise voters via the state’s legislative body…”

All that prompted a blast email from Ohio AFL-CIO spokesman Andy Richards:

It is blowing up Nationally now… The question still remains will Building a Better Ohio denounce these comments since they happened at one of their events and will they finally apologize to Marlene Quinn for their ad twisting her words? Jason Mauk has some answering to do.

UPDATE, 6:23 p.m.: Jason Mauk, spokesman for Build a Better Ohio, which sponsored the event on Friday, says Issue 2 opponents are “doing a phony soccer flip” over Huckabee’s comments.

“Huckabee has clearly been using the voting joke for years, and no one takes it seriously, except the Democrats who immediately cry voter suppression,” he said. “He should probably get a better joke, but opponents of Issue 2 can stop the phony outrage and get back to the real debate.”

Update, 10:37 p.m.: MSNBC’s Ed Schultz played MasonBuzz’s audio recording of Huckabee’s comments on The Ed Schultz show this evening.  “Republicans are playing dirty” by making it harder for people to vote,” said Schultz. “Republicans aren’t confident about the issues so they’re trying to suppress the vote. For Mike Huckabee to joke about voter suppression when his party is actively trying to prevent people from voting is sleazy psycho talk.”

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Update, Oct. 18: MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews also played MasonBuzz’s audio recording of Huckabee’s SB 5 comments in Mason.  “Need proof some Republicans want to try and keep you from voting?” Matthews asked in the lead-in.  “These guys love to say ‘I was just joking’ after they make their right-wing points.  It sounds like he was going for the laughs there, but you do get the point.”

MasonBuzz will continue to monitor this story and will update the blog.

Posted in: Election, Government, News |

Tags: Tags: afl-cio, andy richards, arkansas, ballot, bill, building a better ohio, cincinnati, city council, comedy central, democrat, disenfranchisement, don prince, election, government, governor, huffingtin post, huffpo, indecision blog, issue 2, jeff berding, manor house, marlene quinn, mason, mayor don prince, mike huckabee, mother jones, ohio, politico, politics, presidentian candidate, public employees, referendum, repeal, republican, sb 5, sb5, senate bill 5, suppression, unions, voting, warren county republican party, we are ohio

Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee galvanized hundreds of supporters of Issue 2 Friday in Mason – by jokingly urging them to stop opponents from voting.

The 2008 presidential candidate and Fox News host drew laughs from a packed room with advice that appeared to suggest how they can support the measure, which will appear on the Nov. 8 ballot.

In addition to personally committing to vote and engaging in prayer, Huckabee advised the crowd of 350 to reach out to their friends and family in support of Issue 2.

“Make a list…  Call them and ask them, ‘Are you going to vote on Issue 2 and are you going to vote for it?’  If they say no, well, you just make sure that they don’t go vote.  Let the air out of their tires on election day.  Tell them the election has been moved to a different date.  That’s up to you how you creatively get the job done.”

• Audio: Listen to Huckabee’s speech (quoted part above is about 12 minutes in)
• View photos of Huckabee and the post-event “Values Voter” bus rally
  

Ohio Democrats immediately pounced, accusing Huckabee of advocating “criminal activity.”

“Add this to the list of despicable tactics from supporters of Issue 2,” said the statement from party spokesman Seth Bringman.  “These tactics include accusing middle class supporters of defecating in the Statehouse and, more recently, attacking a woman whose great-granddaughter was saved by heroic firefighters.”

Huckabee and other Republican and Democratic supporters of Senate Bill 5 spoke at the “Yes on Issue 2″ breakfast and rally at the Manor House.  The Warren County Republican Party and Building a Better Ohio sponsored the event.

Issue 2 is a petition-driven referendum to repeal Senate Bill 5, a collective bargaining overhaul that limits the ability of public workers to negotiate for wages, working conditions and pension benefits.

The bill would also make public employees contribute at least 15 percent of their health care costs and to pay at least 10 percent of pay toward pension contributions.

Huckabee defended SB 5 as a “reasonable, common sense” approach to Ohio’s budget woes while deflecting criticism that it is anti-union.

“In every state and in every municipality in this country, there is a huge crisis going on.  In Ohio, an 8 billion dollar one.  And that has to be made up somewhere,” he said.  “I don’t know how many Ohioans you’re willing to put out of work in order to fund a bigger and bigger and bigger government.”

Huckabee’s message resonated with Sandra Tugrul of Lebanon, who agrees that budget cuts are necessary.

“We have to find a way to balance the budget in Ohio and the only way to do that is to cut costs,” she said.  “The policemen and firemen are important, but there’s a point where we have to tighten our belts.”

Jack Chrisman of Lebanon gathers around the "Values Voter" bus for a post-breakfast rally supporting conservative candidates and issues in Ohio. The Enquirer/Rachel Richardson

Democrat Jeff Berding, the former Cincinnati council member who left council earlier this year after he opposed the party on a union issue, spoke in support of Issue 2, saying he knows he no longer has the support of Democratic voters.

Berding said that the current collective bargaining system is tilted unfairly towards unions and that taxpayer money is misused to provide free, or nearly free, health care, pensions and automatic raises for public employees.

“The unions care too much about the pay, the perks, the pensions, but not too much about the public,” he said.  “The current political bargaining system doesn’t give you a seat at the table.  Issue 2 gives you a seat at the table.”

Mason Mayor Don Prince said that Huckabee’s visit demonstrates the growing influence of Warren County voters.

The county, one of the fastest growing counties in the state, is heavily Republican — it voted for John McCain over Barack Obama by over 2-1 in 2008; and, in 2010, gave Republican gubernatorial candidate John Kasich 54,536 votes to only 22,271 for Democratic incumbent Ted Strickland.

“Warren County, and specifically Mason and Deerfield Township,  is becoming a well known area of conservative values,” he said.  “On a national and state level, politicians pay attention to Warren County.”

Huckabee’s folksy appeal held clout with many supporters, like Michelle Seigel of Mason, who says she’s a member of the Mason Tea Party and fears public employee layoffs in the event of an overturn of SB 5.

“He was amazing,” she said.  “I feel I need to do more.  I need to make some calls.”

Posted in: Government, News |

Tags: Tags: arkansas, ballot, bill, building a better ohio, cincinnati, city council, democrat, don prince, election, government, governor, issue 2, jeff berding, manor house, mason, mayor don prince, mike huckabee, ohio, politics, presidentian candidate, public employees, referendum, repeal, republican, sb 5, sb5, senate bill 5, unions, warren county republican party

While leaders in Washington are scrambling to vote on a debt ceiling deal that would head off a default on the nation’s debt, the city of Mason’s bond rating remains steady.

Moody’s Investors Service, which gave the city its highest bond rating of Aaa in May, has notified city officials that Mason will not be included in its pending review of local governments as the nation faces a downgrade of the federal debt rating.

The rating agency announced Thursday that 162 local governments across the country would have their bond ratings reviewed for a possible downgrade.

Mason has “healthy financial operations supported by sound reserves and a diverse income tax base, and a manageable debt burden with limited future borrowing expected, ” according to documents received by city officials from Moody’s.

The rating will help reduce the city’s overall debt service cost through lower rates, saving Mason around $250,000 a year, or up to $2.3 million in savings over the life of the debt, said Jennifer Trepal, Mason’s public information officer.

Trepal points to action taken by City Council on significant debt transactions to improve the city’s overall debt structure. In March, council authorized the city to:

• Refinance existing bonds and convert short-term notes into long-term bonds. This action secured a low 3 percent interest rate for an extended period and will save the city at least $260,000 over the next eight years. The bonds are for the U.S. 42 Widening Project, the Mason Road Widening Project, and Stormwater Improvement projects.

• Convert short-term notes for the golf course acquisition. The city locked in a 3 1/4 long-term rate for the next 12 years. The bonds retain the flexibility to allow the debt to be paid as early as 2016.

• Re-issue a 1-year bond anticipation note for city-owned property on State Route 741. The effective rate of less than 1 percent secured an historically low rate while maintaining needed flexibility. This property is targeted for eventual use as a business park and financing options must retain some flexibility to retain the attractiveness of the property to potential developers.

According to Trepal, the above actions and the city’s aggressive debt reduction strategy will decrease the city’s debt of $99.5 million by $4.2 million in 2011 and another $4.4 million in 2012.

Only 7 percent of the city’s outstanding debt is exposed to rising rates and refinancing risk, she said.

More than half of the outstanding debt is secured by revenue-generating operations such as utility fees and other non-tax sources. The remainder is paid through the city’s General Fund. Income taxes make up about 80 percent of the General Fund, according to Trepal.

“We are paying down our debt in a big way and we’ve got some excellent locked-in long term rates,” said Mason Mayor Don Prince.

Posted in: Board of Trustees, Business, News |

Tags: Tags: aaa, bonds, city of mason, credit ratings, debt ceiling, default, don prince, general fund, investments, jennifer trepal, mason, mason public information officer, mayor, moody's investors service

Mason Mayor Don Prince joined other Republican area local elected officials on Wednesday expressing support for collective bargaining reform in Ohio.

Prince, Deerfield Township Trustee Chris Romano and Miami Township Trustee Ken Tracy conducted a press conference at the Mason Municipal Building, in which they expressed their support that Senate Bill 5, the collective bargaining bill, could help local governments control costs if it becomes law.

Prince, who was a member at Procter & Gamble for 25 years and is the son of a police officer and a firefighter, insisted that his is not an anti-union position, but a pro-tax position.

“I recognize that unions have a place in society but a lesson I had to learn as a union man and that all union members must never forget is who it is that pays your wages,” he said. “Your employer pays your wages, not your union.”

The Republican-controlled Ohio Senate passed a major overhaul yesterday of Ohio’s 27-year-ol collective-bargaining law that would restrict the collective bargaining rights of roughly 350,000 teachers, university professors, firefighters, police officers and other public employees.

Six Republicans joined all 10 Democrats in voting against the bill, which passed the legislation with a 17-16 vote.  The measure now heads to the GOP-dominated Ohio House.

Posted in: Government, News |

Tags: Tags: collective bargaining, don prince, mason, mayor, ohio, reform, sb 5, senate bill 5, unions