Williams: What Cincinnati Zoo tax rejection could mean for Bengals Paycor Stadium talks

The majority of Hamilton County commissioners this week finally turned off the money spigot when they unanimously opposed increasing the zoo levy.

They took a stand for taxpayers – and they stood up to a powerful organization.

Should we read into it as a positive sign for how Democrats Alicia Reece, Denise Driehaus and Stephanie Dumas will collectively approach the Bengals on stadium lease negotiations?

Maybe it’s reason to be cautiously optimistic the commission majority won’t simply roll over for the Bengals, whose owner recently said the franchise doesn't want to move "but we have to have (a deal) that works for us and works for our fans.”

In pushing back on the zoo’s request for a levy increase, the commissioners had to stand up to an organization backed by Cincinnati’s wealthy class. The zoo's board of trustees is packed with influencers who are used to getting what they want from local government.

Pushing back on the zoo could not have been an easy decision. Everyone loves the zoo. It’s a great community asset run by a dynamic leader, Thane Maynard. But the right decision often isn’t easy, and the commission’s decision to say “no” was overdue because “at some point the taxpayers do push back and say enough is enough,” Driehaus said.

The commission, mainly because of Driehaus and Dumas, had been on a run of making decisions not favorable to the citizenry’s pocketbooks.

Last year, Driehaus and Dumas voted against giving homeowners the full annual stadium property tax rollback that was promised when Paycor Stadium was built. Driehaus and Dumas then voted to increase sewer rates by 3%, all at a time when taxpayers and ratepayers were getting hammered by high inflation.

In 2021, Driehaus and Dumas originally supported not giving the full stadium property tax rollback. But Reece outfoxed her colleagues, demanding a county sitting on a $61 million budget surplus at the time to follow through on giving the full property tax rollback. Driehaus and Dumas politically had no choice but to support Reece’s effort, and those of us who own homes in Hamilton County caught a break for a year.

As predicted, the decision didn’t hurt the county financially and it’s been doing fine ever since.

The zoo will be just fine, too. It has other revenue streams, including entry fees, season passes and corporate sponsorships. Often, publicly subsidized agencies and businesses take the easy way out and ask for the taxpayer handout rather than taking a hard look at their books, raising user fees/ticket prices and making adjustments (see: Great Parks of Hamilton County, an agency the commissioners don’t control).

The Bengals will be just fine, too, if the commissioners stand their ground and demand the organization and NFL pony up at least 40% of the cost to upgrade Paycor Stadium. The current lease runs out in 2026, and negotiations have reportedly started on a new deal. We still don’t know how much the Bengals are willing to pay publicly.

The commissioners need to be more aggressive in demanding what they expect the Bengals to pay and making that figure publicly known. It’s known what the Tennessee Titans and Buffalo Bills are going to pay for their new stadiums, so there’s no reason we shouldn’t know what the Bengals are going to pay for stadium upgrades.

Bengals owner Mike Brown recently told reporters he would not publicly discuss specific details about stadium negotiations. Generally speaking about a new lease, Brown said in part: “We don’t own the stadium. The county does. We want to stay here. We’ve been here since we began. Believe me, we aren’t looking to run off. But we have to have something that works for us and works for our fans.”

Compare that to what Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam recently said about his organization’s stadium-lease negotiations with local government officials: “We’re not leaving Northeastern Ohio. That’s for sure.”

If it comes to the Bengals threatening to leave Cincinnati, the commissioners must take a stand and call their bluff. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that because the region loves having the Bengals. But we now know the commissioners are capable of standing up to powerful interests.

Contact columnist Jason Williams by email at  jwilliams@enquirer.com and on Twitter @jwilliamscincy.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: What Cincinnati Zoo tax rejection could mean for Bengals stadium talks