Commissioners to back casino

Commissioners to back casino | Cincinnati.com | The Cincinnati Enquirer

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It was that long ago that having a casino was anathema to most Ohioans. Now with the continued loss of jobs combined with the brain-drain of college graduates, casinos are finding new allies in the Buckeye state. One of the biggest criticisms - that most of the casino jobs would go to workers from outside Ohio - doesn't have the steam it once did. If the 34,000 jobs claimed by developers is correct, that is 34,000 jobs that don't presently exist in Ohio. It doesn't matter who gets those jobs, those workers will become Ohio residents paying Ohio taxes. I'm not a gambler and doubt I will spend much time at a casino (I have yet to go to any of the casinos in SW Indiana). I wrote about safety and security concerns about a casino in Wilmington that may not have had a corresponding increase in fire, police and EMS. Depending on the location, the impact of first responders may remain a problem especially with some many departments experiencing layoffs. After reading another bloggers post about the casinos, I agree another problem with the casino issue won't be the casino itself as much as in the execution. Las Vegas has casinos combined with restaurants and show places. Even if you don't gamble, you can still enjoy Las Vegas. The Ohio casino can't be a stand alone location. Other non-gaming related venues have to be attracted to build adjacent to the casino. Branson, MO is successful not because of its location as much as its ability to attract a multitude of entertainment venues. Ohio should follow this model when building its casinos.

Attracting New Employers

I was talking with a former colleague the other night. She had just accepted a position with a major firm in Dayton but plans on commuting from Columbus for the near future. Given the likelihood that gas prices will rise, I asked her if she was planning to eventually move to Dayton. She wasn’t in favor of moving as, according to her, Dayton has a much higher per capita crime rate than Columbus. I found this an interesting perspective as one who writes about the safety and security of communities.

Dayton has been beset by a number of corporations (NCR, Mead) leaving the area. No new corporations have located to Dayton to replace those that have departed. The main reason typically given is the high taxes and licenses required by the state but the other reason may be a perception that Dayton isn’t safe. According to crime statistics from the Dayton Police, there have been 355 arrests for violent crimes to date. This seems to be consistent for the last two years.

Cincinnati crime statistics are grouped differently making a comparison a little harder. Year to date, Cincinnati has had 1,760 total arrests to date compared to 1,971 last year.
Statistics are always an intriguing argument and you can often conclude completely opposite conclusions from the same data points. Dayton is smaller than Cincinnati so you would expect the total numbers to be correspondingly bigger. Cincinnati does seem to have reduced the overall number of arrest while Dayton has remained steady. One might conclude that a reduction in crime indicates an aggressive approach to maintaining a safe community. It might also reflect the larger number of police agencies in and around the Cincinnati area compared to Dayton.

My real point is though whatever the facts may be, the perception of a community being less safe than another has much impact on business than we may first realize. Cincinnati’s mayor is trying to associate himself with a positive brand image for the Cincinnati. Mayor Mallory has met with sharp criticism for this tactic but can understand his desire to promote a positive image for the city.

I don’t get the Dayton Daily News anymore so can’t really speak to how Mayor McLin is promoting Dayton’s image. Based on my purely anecdotal experience, it appears there may be some opportunity for improvement.

Communities looking to attract new businesses can begin by showcasing the safety and security of local area. Too often this gets overlooked when it comes time to pass fire and police levies. Taxpayers become less willing to support levies when they don’t understand the benefit to themselves or when there have been multiple requests to support levies.
Having first rate fire and police agencies should be part of the communities strategic plan to attract new businesses. In some cases, it may become more prudent to pursue regional approach with multiple small municipalities sharing the cost versus establishing separate departments in each town. The political sensitivity towards regional service can be touch and may not always be a viable option. Whenever possible though, looking at how best to make the community safer and thus more attractive to employers is one of the better approaches.

$4M to fight crime

$4M to fight crime | Cincinnati Enquirer | Cincinnati.Com

The solution still is to deal with things after the fact.  You don't need the stimulus plan to re-look at sentencing guidelines.  Alternatives need to be looked at for non-violent criminals that don't involve jail time.  The side bar shows a very uneven distribution with Cincinnati getting the most money.  Well of Cincinnati should as it is a large city, right?  Cincinnati Police recently conducted Vortex in which they focused on high-crime areas in an attempt to reduce crime.  It worked, sort of as Vortex simply drove criminal activity to outlaying areas.  The $2.4 million dollars may have a similar effect, instead of reducing crime it may only serve to drive crime to other areas.

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Connections

There was a show on PBS called Connections hosted by James Burke. In addition to being a historian, Burke possessed a very dry sense of humor. The show took a unique look at history and showed how different events built on one another over time. Burke’s approach was to avoid the typical linear approach to history and look more holistically at events and exploring some lesser-known connections.

I started thinking about “Connections” the other day while reading about additional lays offs for sheriff’s deputies. The deputies are the latest in a budget cuts resulting from the failing economy and diminishing tax revenues. The sheriff blames elected officials but the public blames the sheriff and elected officials. Neither view goes very far at looking at the causes.

Low tax revenues does not mean low taxes, in fact just the opposite tends to be the case. Ohio has one of the worst tax situations for businesses and explains in part why business chose to locate in other states. Governor Strickland has for some time correctly assessed that Ohio suffers from “brain-drain”, unfortunately he tends to see this as a educational issue and feels developing a state university system is the way to overcome brain-drain. I believe the real reason Ohio is losing “brains” is due to a lack of jobs to employ those brains. I read a few years ago that Ohio had fewer new home constructions in one year than Atlanta. High taxes create a disincentive for businesses, which in turn creates a disincentive for job creations. Fewer business and jobs means lower tax revenues.

High taxes are just one of the reasons that fewer businesses are in Ohio. As industries became deregulated, such as the airlines, larger businesses bought out smaller ones until only a handful of bloated companies are left. United, American and Delta are all that is left of the legacy carriers. They merged and bought out their competition and contrary to the predictions of market economics, newer airlines weren’t able to enter the market. A sort of monopoly was created and without new airlines entering the market, there was not incentive for the legacy carriers to maintain travel perks. There was little incentive to modernize and improve flights in advance of staggering fuel costs. Once crude oil prices skyrocketed, airlines had no choice but pass the cost on to the consumer.

The American auto industry became complacent and was unable to react even while losing $2,000 per every car produced. Now it looks as though Chrysler may not survive through the year even despite the federal bailout. Chrysler provides 80 percent of the cars that make up the Dollar Thrifty fleet. If Chrysler collapses, then Dollar Thrifty (not to mention all of the suppliers and dealers that depend on Chrysler) will fail. Many of these businesses are located in Ohio and the loss of jobs and tax revenues will be devastating.

Tax revenues in Ohio have been decreasing as a result of businesses leaving the state. As businesses leave the ability for the state to receive revenue from taxes decreases. The loss of business means a loss of jobs as well further reducing tax revenues. Job loss increases demand on public services that are funded through tax revenues. People without incomes are forced to turn to public assistance in the best case or crime in worst case. Increased crime rates places more demands on law enforcement and correctional facilities. The lack of tax revenues causes cuts to law enforcement and the closing of correctional facilities.

Going back to “Connections”, we need to make the connection of jobs to the safety and security of our communities. We need jobs and employers to pay taxes to generate the revenue need to fund our communities. Elected officials need to work with business in collaborative way to create communities that are safe and attractive to businesses. In turn, these businesses will create jobs to provide the tax revenues to provide for the safety and well being of the community.

The Economy

It’s the economy, stupid. Two items caught my attention both related to the economy although the items were filed under different headings.

First, there is a summit of college and business leaders today at the University of Cincinnati the brain drain “discovered” by Governor Stickland during a recent visit to Taft High School. Nine out of ten students indicated they would be pursuing academic careers outside of Ohio because that is where the jobs are. I put quotation marks around discovered because this situation should not have been news to the governor. Ohio has one of the worst tax schemes anywhere for business. Business owners get to pay state, county, city and/or township taxes. In addition, businesses pay a variety of licenses. All of this is paid on top of the normal expenditures for employee benefits, insurance, pension funds, etc. There are only so many ways to trim costs and before long the only option left becomes to relocate your business. The Mead Corporation was a homegrown company in Dayton, Ohio but eventually relocated their corporate headquarters. The decision did not have anything to do with an inability to find qualified workers, rather the costs associated with keeping their corporate headquarters here in Ohio (where the Mead family is from) became just too expensive.

Governor Strickland is focused on creating jobs through revamping Ohio’s high educational system. He envisions luring companies to Ohio by having a highly trained workforce in place. A test of his theory has already hit the local area in the form of the DHL closure in Wilmington. Seven thousand jobs have been cut creating a huge pool of employed workers. Many of these workers have technical skills and college degrees, if the governor’s theory is correct then another company should be willing to relocate here and hire the DHL employees. However, I doubt this is likely to occur without revamping Ohio taxes to create incentives for a major employer to relocate to the Wilmington area. The meeting at UC today may provide some great ideas but without also creating economic incentive for business, these will remain just great ideas.

The second issue was on Cincinnati Blogs concerning impending budget cuts in Hamilton County. Typically public sector agencies cut budgets by postponing expenditures on equipment or facilities. Training is cancelled or postponed. Another strategy involves some combination of furloughs, early retirements, hiring freezes, or eliminating positions. These measures are short-term at best, as the requirements for these expenditures didn’t change. Assuming the agency has done due diligence in creating these positions, reducing the workforce may help balance the books but it increases the workload of the employees left on the payroll. Incidence of sick leave, absenteeism or resignations will increase.
Eventually they will become frustrated and eventually may look for work elsewhere. The end result of these budgetary actions is an overall diminished effectiveness of the agency to perform its mission. In Hamilton County, we see the sheriff’s office painting a grim picture of rampant crime as patrols are eliminated and criminals will have to be released due to over-crowding in the jails. I have no way of knowing what analysis the sheriff has conducted to arrive at his decisions. I do wonder if these decisions were made in coordination with the city of Cincinnati to see which agencies could pick up the slack for other agencies? For instance, some of the patrols provided by the sheriff’s office were in the Other the Rhine area which is (I believe) in District 1 of the Cincinnati Police, could these patrols not be conducted by the police? Law enforcement agencies usually have mutual aid compacts in place, could these be modified to augment the reductions by the sheriff elsewhere in Hamilton County? Of course that assumes these patrols are required in the first place, if they are then a compromise of some kind needs to be reached. If they aren’t required, then they can be eliminated and funding used to conduct other critical functions.

Hamilton County is facing a budget crisis in part because of the economy but also because of the loss of tax revenues. I submit that Ohio has some of the highest taxes of any of the states, yet our tax revenues are plummeting. Higher taxes create disincentives to spending which in turn reduces tax revenues. We’ve all heard about business relocating their operations overseas. Wages are often pointed out as the reason which inevitably leads to finger pointing between labor and management. What gets overlooked is the need for workers to be able to earn a certain level in order to pay their taxes. Employers have to not only meet the need for a fair and competitive wages, they too have to pay taxes on their facilities and profits. Combined the situation creates a major disincentive to operate business locally and leads to employers leaving Ohio. Our college and tech school graduates have no choice but to follow those jobs out of the state.

Creating jobs in Ohio leads not only to a better quality of life for our residents, it will lead to safer communities as our public sector agencies (fire, EMS, law enforcement, public works) will have the funding they need to operate.

Issue 6

It is hard to avoid hearing political ads on TV or radio during this time of year. A presidential election increases the flow of ads ten fold. I’ve tuned out most of the presidential ads, each one candidate trying to eek out an additional percentage point or two over his opponent. Ohio elections have already dug up voter fraud skeletons from previous elections and guarantee that the Buckeye state will be front-page news.

For me, the interesting issue this year is not who becomes the next President as much as whether casino gambling comes to Clinton County. Clinton County’s major employer, for those readers outside the Cincinnati area, is DHL. Recently DHL decided to sell off its routes to UPS and in effect shut down operations in Clinton County. Estimates are 6,000 jobs will be lost at the airpark and as many another 4-6,000 other jobs from related businesses will be lost. The casino promises to bring 5,000 new jobs. Opponents of the casino argue it will bring crime and increase addictions to gambling and substance abuse. Those in favor point out that Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania and West Virginia have legalized gambling and thus Ohio is losing revenues.

Critics of casino gambling are concerned loopholes in Issue 6 can either allow more casinos to be built or does an inadequate job of insuring casino tax revenues are appropriately distributed. Issue 6 proponents claims these concerns are without merit and the casino will help offset the job losses created by DHL.

The casino will undoubtedly generate jobs for Clinton County, however how many of these jobs will be the higher paying dealer or manager positions? Often casinos bring in dealers who have learned their trade at the casinos in Las Vegas or Atlantic City. Managers and pit bosses are also imported from other casinos owned by the parent corporation. Nothing on the MyOhioNow.com website discusses jobs other than in round numbers. I’m for new jobs for the region but I would like to see more detail about how these jobs will be filled.

Distribution of tax revenues is another matter that still is vague. Yes, the casino will pay taxes and yes a percentage of those revenues will go to the state and counties. How much this will be remains to be seen as the casino has yet to be built. What interests me is how much of the tax revenue, if any, will be set aside for the increased fire, EMS and police runs. The location for the proposed casino means Harveysburg and Wilmington fire and EMS along with Clinton County Sheriff’f Office will be dealing with overtime issues. Will these departments received increased funding through these tax revenues to offset the increased number of runs?

Clinton Memorial Hospital will be seeing an increased number of emergencies as stressed out patrons collapse from too much alcohol and gambling. How many of these patients will have health insurance? Will Clinton County Memorial receive any compensation for having additional physicians and nurses on duty to handle long weekends filled with out of town gamblers?

If Issue 6 passes, I hope there are more discussions that addresses the safety and security of our community regarding the casino.

Smart Cars and the economy

According to the latest U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Ohio’s unemployment rate is 7.4 ranking the state at 46 out of 51. The Cincinnati-Middletown metropolitan area (which includes adjacent parts of Kentucky and Indiana) rate is slightly better at 6.3 ranking the area at 226 out of 369. These figures do not include the impending losses from DHL and associated businesses. Over the last 7 years Ohio lost 236,000 manufacturing positions (according to Workers World.org). Some African-American neighborhoods in Cleveland have adult unemployment at well over 50 percent. These are some of the same areas most severely impacted by the foreclosure crisis.

I see the current economic situation creating a very unsafe situation for our communities. As more and more people lose jobs and their homes, desperation and hopelessness could become rampant. Violent crimes will likely rise as more people become frustrated and take out their emotions in violent acts. Others will resort to robbery in order to survive. Worse, others may feel their communities are becoming too unsafe and will leave. An exodus of the disenfranchised could further deteriorate an already weakened economic situation here in the Cincinnati area.

A surprising glimmer of hope comes from the energy crisis. Smart cars are becoming more popular and rumors are that Toyota may locate their plant here in Ohio. Pursuing alternative fuel and transportation is good both for environmental reasons as well as reducing our dependence on foreign energy sources. Now if they could only make a Smart Car that someone 6’3” or taller can fit into. Oh well, maybe its time to take up yoga!

Home Fire Sprinkler Systems

About a month ago, a very expensive home caught fire and burned downed in a Mason which is just North of Cincinnati. The home was valued at $500K and is typical of the homes in this rapidly developing suburb. The home burned in part because it took firefighters over 12 minutes to arrive at the scene. There was no negligence on the part of the fire department, rather the delay in responding was due to the sparseness of fire departments outside of the city limits. As Cincinnati continues to grow North, suburbs are being built faster than fire departments (and other public safety agencies) can be created to fill the need.

The Mason fire started a length discussion in the local newspaper about the distribution of fire departments in the area. For instance, within the city limits it is not uncommon to find multiple fire departments within a few miles of one another (Elmwood Place, St Bernard and Cincinnati have fire stations adjacent to each other). The Wyoming Fire Department often is called out to fight fires in other jurisdictions. The ability for other departments to support one another under such circumstances is ideal. As you travel North on I-75, the number of fire departments drop drastically. A single station maybe responsible for an entire township resulting in the long response time noted above.

The paper quoted local fire chiefs as to their thoughts on how the disparity between fire coverage in the city and suburbs could be addressed. Most agreed it would be impossible to redistribute fire service capabilities unless all a regional fire service was created. The outcry from local elected officials, citizens and even some fire chiefs keeps this option from being viable. For example, two smaller municipalities agreed to combine fire and EMS departments. Both of these municipalities have good tax bases which should have meant this was an ideal situation. Instead, one municipality is complaining because the majority of EMS runs goes to the other municipality. I can’t imagine the level of squabbling that would occur if such a proposal was attempted on regional basis.

I teach safety and security management and felt there had to be another solution to the problem. I then came across a concept many of you may not have heard of; home fire sprinkler systems. Home sprinkler systems, listed by Underwriters Labs, react automatically to fires using state of the art sensors and technology. They are low cost and according the United States Fire Association (USFA) website, cost per foot in new constructions is $1 to $1.50. The home systems don’t look like the typical systems you see in commercial or industrial constructions. The systems can be blended into the décor of the home. Installation and water requirements for the systems in new construction are estimated to be much lower than for commercial construction sites. The home systems are designed to respond only to the room with the fire, in other words the whole system does not activate in the event your dinner starts to burn on the stove. Water damage from the sprinkler system suppressing a fire is far less than from the smoke and associated damage from a house fire without a sprinkler system.

Several residences have initiated home sprinkler ordnances; Livermore, California
Montgomery County, MD; Long Grove, Illinois; Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Germantown, Tennessee; Scottsdale, Arizona; Altamonte Springs, Florida. Insurance discounts vary but range between 5-15%.
Some other considerations for having a home sprinkler system:

- A fire occurs in a residential structure every 79 seconds, according to the U.S. Fire Administration.

- Families with children, senior citizens, and handicapped members have special fire protection needs. Home sprinkler systems provide added protection for these people.

- In case of a home fire, firefighters will have less risk of injury or life loss since they will be fighting a fire of less intensity.

- Allocation of community resources can be improved with the adoption of home sprinkler technology.

- Communities will be able to make better utilization of available land and thereby increase their tax base.

Developing a regional fire department is certainly a cost-effective and practical concept, however it may take years of negotiations before anything can happen. In the meantime, home owners can explore another option to insuring the safety of their homes and loved ones by installing a home fire sprinkler system.

Safety and Security Mindset

The last few weeks have seen an alarming increase in shootings. First a lone gunman at a mall in Omaha opened fire killing eight people. Then a week later, another gunman opens fire at a church killing two before being killed himself by a guard at the church. Here in Ohio we had a gunman in Columbus shoot someone at a mall in Columbus. What can we learn from these incidents other than man’s seemingly unlimited capacity to commit violence? The one lesson we can take away from all of these incidents (as well as other incidents occurring throughout the country) is the need to be prepared. Despite the coverage of these incidents on the national media, there are many still going about their daily routines as though this could never happen to them. People will leave their park their cars and begin walking to the store without any awareness about the potential threats surrounding them. The other week a man was robbed at the local Wal-Mart in the parking lot. The robbery was in broad daylight which can only mean the victim wasn’t paying attention or had dismissed the parking lot as a dangerous area.

People don’t want to think about the how dangerous an ordinary trip to the mall can become. These people may have worked out an extensive plan for surviving a disaster at their home but fail to apply the same security mindset when it comes to the mundane act of shopping. Every part of the trip needs to be considered from a safety and security perspective. Anything from breaking down in your vehicle to being faced with a shooter or bomb in the mall needs to be planned for. It is still rare to actually be faced with as being shot at by a rogue gunman or being trapped in a building where a bomb has just exploded. Yet these scenarios are becoming situations that can face you or one of your family members regardless of the locale. We assume that the owners of the mall or building will provide the necessary security and safety measures to prevent such things from happening. However, in both the mall shooting in Omaha and church in Colorado “gun free zones” had been established which in theory meant these should have been the last places to experience shootings. In addition to being gun-free zones, both the church and mall had security personnel on station and certainly the mall had surveillance cameras monitoring the common areas and parking lots. Despite all of these precautions, the owners were ultimately unable to prevent violence from occurring.

Both the Colorado and Nebraska shootings should serve as a reminder of how quickly you may be confronted with a life and death situation. There is no time to develop a plan once a gunman starts shooting into a crowd. You have to have a mindset which assumes danger could happen at a moments notice. You need to be aware of your surroundings to both determine potential threats as well as to locate areas that may provide protection in the event of an attack. Some may feel this is being paranoid but it is actually no different then assuming a defensive mindset while driving. Each vehicle presents a potential danger and you are constantly updating options for dealing with each new circumstance. The same can be done as you walk around a store, mall or other public gathering place. Take note of any unusual or suspicious activity. Don’t be quick to dismiss as someone else’s responsibility to deal with an unattended package. We live in a time when making generalizations about people and there behavior is off-limits as we may offend. Regardless, this doesn’t mean that you should ignore feelings about some character you’ve encountered, if they make you feel uneasy there is a reason. You may be subconsciously detecting their anxiety or hostility. Such feelings may be the only warning you get before the individual begins shooting or decides to detonate an explosive device. You need to think about how you will deal with a potentially unstable individual should you happen upon them before they have a chance to commit their act of violence. If there is time, notify security or the police. If there isn’t start yelling or throw something at the person, anything at all to disrupt their plans and to get others to notice them.

You need to be ready to assist in the event of an attack providing and aid or comfort that you can. First aid and CPR training may be the only thing keeping someone alive until rescue personnel are able to get to the wounded. Children and elderly may become separated from their family and become confused and disoriented. Try to calm and assure them until authorities are able to restore order and neutralize the threat. In the event of an explosion or some other disaster resulting in structural failure, people may become trapped or pinned under rubble. Simply providing comfort and assurance to those under such circumstances can be incredibly important. Structural failures can also mean being trapped without food or water for an extended period of time. There may be little to no light. You and other victims (who may or may not be wounded) will have to survive until rescue personnel can reach you with only those provisions within reach (which may be hardly anything at all).

Recent events occurred at malls and churches but of course an attack can occur any time and anywhere. We are experiencing our first wintry mix of weather this weekend in Cincinnati but before we know it the temperatures will be warming and people will be going out to festivals and amusement parks. Any public gathering should be considered as a place where violence can strike. We here so much in the news about terrorist organizations that we forget a single sociopath bent on causing harm is just as dangerous and much more common. Our ability to live our lives as we choose should never be compromised by such threats however it is only prudent to plan for the potential of having to deal with the next random shooting or bomb attack.