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Speaker 1: Seven six fifty five Carsite Talks Station and halfy Tuesday,

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Speaker 1: one hour from nine inside Scoop of Bright Part News,

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Speaker 1: Immigration editor John Dender returns talk about us well, the

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Speaker 1: national media ignoring illegal immigrants, murdering citizens and molesting children,

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Speaker 1: et cetera. It's that Daniel Davis deep dive on the

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Speaker 1: Iran situation and without further ado. Always great to have

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Speaker 1: him on the fifty five krs Morning Show because whatever

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Speaker 1: he's talking about is important to what's going on in

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Speaker 1: the City of Cincinnati, or maybe matters legal. Steve Gooden

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Speaker 1: from the law firm Orporter Right, our legal expert and

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Speaker 1: of course former counselmen, putting him in a great position

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Speaker 1: to talk about the two or twenty nine point five

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Speaker 1: million dollar budget deficit of the City of Cincinnati, along

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Speaker 1: with KFOP President Ken Kober's comments on the corollary six

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Speaker 1: point six million dollar cut to the police apartment. Steve

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Speaker 1: good and welcome back.

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Speaker 2: Man.

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Speaker 1: It's always great having you on the show.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's great to be here. Wish we didn't have

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Speaker 2: to talk about this. Good to be here.

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Speaker 1: B Well, it'd be good if you're a city council person,

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Speaker 1: because then you could make arguments in favor of what

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Speaker 1: should be cut and what shouldn't be cut. And I'm

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Speaker 1: sure having served as a Cincinnati councilman for a period

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Speaker 1: of time, you probably have some ideas on that. And

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Speaker 1: I guess I just I actually laughed, literally laughed out

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Speaker 1: loud when I saw the headline about the cuts to

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Speaker 1: the police department, because it was just a week ago

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Speaker 1: that the council approved the resolution for eight million dollars

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Speaker 1: for that music venue over at Riverbend, and I was

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Speaker 1: wondering out loud on that one we talked about here

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Speaker 1: on the morning show. I mean, they hadn't even been

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Speaker 1: asked for money for that one. Originally it was all

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Speaker 1: since a symphony orchestras moving forward with that was one

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Speaker 1: hundred and sixty million dollar project, no city money involved

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Speaker 1: in it. Like, where did this eight million dollar ask

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Speaker 1: come for? And why did the city council prove it?

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Speaker 1: Fast forward a week They get eight million dollars from

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Speaker 1: music venue, at least they seem to, and now they're

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Speaker 1: going to cut money from the police department, which is

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Speaker 1: desperately needed. Steve, where are we on this? And you know,

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Speaker 1: maybe what would a cooler, clearer headed person like you

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Speaker 1: have done or would do in this situation.

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Speaker 2: Well, well, if I'm the cooler, palmer person, we're all

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Speaker 2: in a bad spot. But I'll tell you. I mean,

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Speaker 2: it's it's just a terrible, terrible thing that's going on

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Speaker 2: with the city right now. I mean, first, let's just

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Speaker 2: pull it all away. It's been an open secret for weeks,

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Speaker 2: if not months, that we were heading forward to nearly

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Speaker 2: thirty million dollar budget deficits. I mean, these numbers aren't new.

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Speaker 2: The tax or seats have been coming in where they

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Speaker 2: have been quarterly for some time. So the idea that

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Speaker 2: somehow the eight million dollars for the River Bend Center,

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Speaker 2: which is going to a ticketed event where we for

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Speaker 2: higher ends things where people with their disposal income go

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Speaker 2: rather than into law enforcement. Everyone knew when they voted

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Speaker 2: for that eight million that a budget deficit was going

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Speaker 2: to be where it was. Almost all of them they

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Speaker 2: knew or should have known. So it's even worse than

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Speaker 2: it seems on the It's not like they went on

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Speaker 2: a spending screen and then learned their credit card was

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Speaker 2: maxed out because they hadn't been checking their credit card app.

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Speaker 2: They knew what was coming, and like the eight million

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Speaker 2: really points to the key problem down there is you know,

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Speaker 2: these are foot whenever a city council members are talking

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Speaker 2: about stakeholders quote end quote or community partners, what they

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Speaker 2: really mean are the rich people who sit on these

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Speaker 2: nonprofit boards or who sit on the board or something

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Speaker 2: like many that owns river bench and who they want

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Speaker 2: to impress and who they want to get campaign contributions from.

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Speaker 2: It's not a direct Quod broke Loow corruption like you

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Speaker 2: said with TV sitting feld than others, but it is

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Speaker 2: a kind of soft corruption where they're trying to impruss

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Speaker 2: them with taxpayer dollars. But I mean, look, I just

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Speaker 2: off the top of my head, if they took that

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Speaker 2: eight million plus the four point five million they spent

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Speaker 2: on this like public safety initiative last year where they

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Speaker 2: didn't even they had zero results. You know, they opened

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Speaker 2: these perfew centers where they only had four kids the report,

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Speaker 2: if they took the three million that they used for

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Speaker 2: the political sun on medical debt relief that they did

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Speaker 2: right and only in certain neighborhoods right before the election,

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Speaker 2: and they took Irish Rolls one million dollar contract. I mean,

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Speaker 2: I just got fourteen million and I haven't even really

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Speaker 2: looked at the budget, so I think it's really you know,

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Speaker 2: just really we're halfway there before we've even sharpened our

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Speaker 2: pencils and looked at the individual departments. So you know,

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Speaker 2: what jo and what they're doing here is really terrible.

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Speaker 2: They're of course going back and blaming you know, blaming

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Speaker 2: Republicans for everything basically. I mean, they're going over shocking

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Speaker 2: development there. Could you believe it? It's not their fault,

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Speaker 2: you know, hey, they're saying that.

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Speaker 1: I was I just want to ask how many decades

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Speaker 1: has it been since we had a Republican mayor of

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Speaker 1: the City of Cincinnati. How many how many years has

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Speaker 1: it been since we had, you know, a Republican dominated

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Speaker 1: city council. So Republicans are at fault even though the

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Speaker 1: Democrats have been running the city since an for forty years.

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Speaker 2: That's correct, And I mean it took some creativity to

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Speaker 2: get there. But I mean, I guess councilor and Jeff Cramertons,

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Speaker 2: you know, made this very dire speech yesterday and also

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Speaker 2: said this and the press thing, well, you know, the

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Speaker 2: state has cut the local government fund and that's really

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Speaker 2: put us in a bad spot. Yeah, it was twenty eleven,

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Speaker 2: John Kasik. You know who's now a trivia question was

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Speaker 2: the governor, And they did in every other municipality in

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Speaker 2: Ohio sort of adjusted. They needed to cut back some

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Speaker 2: of the state income tax it's maybe going away anyway,

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Speaker 2: and give it to the local cities. And then finally,

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Speaker 2: I think case it got to a point where the

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Speaker 2: state budget was out of whack the money, there was

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Speaker 2: zero accountability to how it was meant, so they cut

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Speaker 2: it fifteen years ago. And then I guess they blamed

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Speaker 2: the Trump administration for not renewing the American Rescue Plan money.

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Speaker 2: The city's been sort of running year to year off

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Speaker 2: of some of the COVID relief dollars. But of course,

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Speaker 2: you know that was designed specifically to replace you know,

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Speaker 2: income Tact revenue caused by office closing downtown, which it

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Speaker 2: was needed at the time. I don't know that we

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Speaker 2: needed to close all those offices in retrospect, but the

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Speaker 2: money was needed to offset the revenue for operating purposes.

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Speaker 2: And now that's gone. So rather than look at the

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Speaker 2: budget and incredibly within your means, you know, there is

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Speaker 2: always pointing to either Columbus or DC as the cause

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Speaker 2: of their problems. It's absurd. There has been a Republican

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Speaker 2: council number now in almost four years, so but yet

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Speaker 2: it is someone.

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Speaker 1: Else's fault, always someone else's fault. You know, I didn't

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Speaker 1: see on the list from the survey that the City

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Speaker 1: Cincinnati does every two years or the summary of what's important.

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Speaker 1: Seth Walsh said it out loud yesterday and talking to

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Speaker 1: the enquire that the residents have raided roads, snow removal,

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Speaker 1: police and fire as most important. Steve good no one

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Speaker 1: has ever said out loud that it's important for the

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Speaker 1: City of Cincinnati to own and operate, build, own and

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Speaker 1: operate its own solar farm green. How much money is

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Speaker 1: the green agenda that? I mean, as if the City

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Speaker 1: of Cincinnati's carbon dioxide output is going to have a

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Speaker 1: remote impact on the globe. I mean, that is just insane.

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Speaker 1: Steve Gooden.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's almost like that they were virtue signaling for

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Speaker 2: runs for future runs for higher office by spending your

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Speaker 2: Tex dollars on things might play well in the Democratic

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Speaker 2: primary at some point. I mean, that's all that was.

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Speaker 2: I mean, it's an open secret, as all was. I

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Speaker 2: think it's out in Brown County or Highland County somewhere,

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Speaker 2: and you know, one day, theoretically it's going to provide

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Speaker 2: something to offset some of the bread here instance. I mean,

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Speaker 2: I don't know. The whole thing is a nonsense to me.

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Speaker 2: I know, they went out and did a photo op

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Speaker 2: on a cornfield somewhere with some solar panels, and I

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Speaker 2: forget what that one costs, but I think that was

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Speaker 2: upward a sim million dollars. We're also, as I recall,

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Speaker 2: still subsidizing the street park in nearly ten million a year,

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Speaker 2: you know, for free rides that run in a circle,

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Speaker 2: for something that is still being built nominally to the public,

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Speaker 2: is being funded by and supported by charitable interests in

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Speaker 2: downtown interest. The city's still on the hook for the

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Speaker 2: service contract, which is roughly ten million a year. We're

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Speaker 2: also paying almost that we have so much data city

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Speaker 2: now that if I read the Kaffri correctly, we are

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Speaker 2: paying close to a million dollars a week in interest.

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Speaker 2: So that's I mean, that's that's how out of wax

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Speaker 2: things are at this point. And that's just on the

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Speaker 2: operating side. So I mean, we have a whole capital

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Speaker 2: budget and these restricted funds that are that run the

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Speaker 2: water works and the city's part of the MSD and

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Speaker 2: other things are that natures that are also you know,

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Speaker 2: challenged in their own way. But but there's so many

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Speaker 2: things that there's so much money that has gone out

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Speaker 2: the door on pet projects, you know that it's really

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Speaker 2: it's truly a thurred. It's really frightening, and that, to

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Speaker 2: me is one of the reasons why the railroad keeps

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Speaker 2: coming up, you know, like a bad ten here, because

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Speaker 2: even though those funds are restricted and have to go

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Speaker 2: by state laws through two road projects and things of

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Speaker 2: that nature, they're clearly the plan is to use those funds,

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Speaker 2: isn't excuse it, cut back on what they would normally

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Speaker 2: put into the capitol budget and use the cast for

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Speaker 2: yet more pet projects. They're going to use it as

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Speaker 2: an offset, not an additive. And that's and that's what

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Speaker 2: I think it's starting to starting to dawn on people.

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Speaker 2: Even a lot of very good, soulful Democrats in the

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Speaker 2: city are saying, I'm going to wait, wait a minute here,

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Speaker 2: do we get kind of scammed. The money's restricted, but

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Speaker 2: they're using it as an offset, not an additive, and

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Speaker 2: that's really really disgusting.

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Speaker 1: Steve Goodin I want to hold you over because I

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Speaker 1: want to talk about proposals to resolve this problem, one

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Speaker 1: of which includes maybe increasing the income tax uh and

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Speaker 1: what your perception of how that might work out will

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Speaker 1: mean for the City of Cincinnati. But another thing, this

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Speaker 1: has been an ongoing problem, these budget deficits, going way

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Speaker 1: back before the pandemic. So clearly we have a historic problem.

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Speaker 1: And I will chime in again, maybe you need some

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Speaker 1: more Democrats on council and perhaps in the mayor's role

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Speaker 1: more with Steve Gooden at seven fifteen right now fifty

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Speaker 1: five KERC detalk station. Chimney can see the talk station

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Speaker 1: at seven twenty fifty five CARCIT detalk station. Tom Zawastowski

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Speaker 1: coming up next on v DA Ramaswami's plan for property taxes.

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Speaker 1: We the People Convention dot orgs Tom. In the meantime,

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Speaker 1: we are talking with Steve good and we got Steve

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Speaker 1: good in the line right now, former council member. He

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Speaker 1: is and going through this budget. Apparently this has been

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Speaker 1: going on a long time. It's reported that prior to

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Speaker 1: COVID nineteen, the city regularly faced deficits of twenty million

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Speaker 1: dollars or more. They say the most dire one showed

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Speaker 1: up in the Great Recession. At twenty nine and ten,

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Speaker 1: then city Manager Milton Dahoney proposed laying off three hundred

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Speaker 1: employees and one hundred plus police officers. But they didn't

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Speaker 1: have to do that because apparently the unions agreed to

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Speaker 1: defer some benefits. And then they imposed the new trash

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Speaker 1: collection fee that year and cut some other areas, so

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Speaker 1: new fees, and that lets me pivot over to the

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Speaker 1: proposal that's going around and swirling around council. Now, Well,

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Speaker 1: we're short on deficits, Jeff Kramerting said of the Inquirer yesterday.

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Speaker 1: I think moving forward year after year, that will be

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Speaker 1: the new reality, these big cuts and these budget deficits.

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Speaker 1: So let's raise the income tax. Steve, how's that for

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Speaker 1: an idea?

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Speaker 2: Well, you know, I'll tell you that's that's everywhere right now,

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Speaker 2: and that's been talked about for some time. And what's

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Speaker 2: kind of amazing to me, and I think one of

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Speaker 2: the stories that's not being talked about here when it

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Speaker 2: comes to the income tax is where the business community

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Speaker 2: seems to be. And it's puzzling to me because there's

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Speaker 2: this thing called the Cincinnati Futree Commission Report, which is

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Speaker 2: you know, really a lot of folks that you know,

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Speaker 2: it's a lot of CEOs and different people, you know,

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Speaker 2: Procter and Gable CEO and others served on this thing,

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Speaker 2: and it was nominally designed to fix the city's finances.

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Speaker 2: There was a bunch of suggestions by by business people,

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Speaker 2: and actually they favored and suggested raising the earning pack.

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Speaker 2: They won't, of course set aside the money as I recall,

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Speaker 2: for some sort of housing boondoggle. But it was kind

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Speaker 2: of amazing to me that it typically would be the

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Speaker 2: business community pushing back saying, no, you know, we don't

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Speaker 2: need a higher earningtack. It's a disincentive for people to

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Speaker 2: work in the Senate City. We don't need it. So

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Speaker 2: for whatever reason, the business community does seem for at

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Speaker 2: least a lot of the business community seems fine to

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Speaker 2: go along with this thing. So I have a bad

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Speaker 2: feeling it's going to happen. I'm afraid it's just more

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Speaker 2: money that's going to go into into this kind of

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Speaker 2: plus fun kind of scenario. The only way I would

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Speaker 2: ever even cut contemplate going along with something like that

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Speaker 2: is if the money were really set aside for public safety.

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Speaker 2: What happens every time. This is what happened back in

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Speaker 2: two thousand and eight and nine with Milton to Honey

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Speaker 2: a new reference. Then they were threatening to cut firefighter.

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Speaker 2: This time they're threatening to cut police. You know, they

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Speaker 2: couldn't in all departments, but they put the police peep

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Speaker 2: out yesterday. He's a good sold and to be talking

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Speaker 2: about what these touch would look like to his department,

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Speaker 2: and now what would probably mean deferring an entire recruit class,

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Speaker 2: which it's badly needed. I mean, the police department at

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Speaker 2: least one hundred and fifty officers understrings, arguably more so.

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Speaker 2: You know that it would you know, the only way

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Speaker 2: I would ever even think of something like that is

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Speaker 2: if you could have depoliticize the police department by having

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Speaker 2: their own stream of income identified. But no, I think

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Speaker 2: they're going to do it. I think there's there's some

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Speaker 2: you know, there is support to do it across the board,

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Speaker 2: and I think that's one of the things that's really

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Speaker 2: unfortunate here. There's a lot of folks in the business community,

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Speaker 2: a lot of folks in the Chamber of Commerce who

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Speaker 2: have gone along with what this whole democratic council is doing,

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Speaker 2: you know, because it's in their best interest to you know,

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Speaker 2: but to do their development projects and other things of

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Speaker 2: that nature. They have a friendly audience for that, and

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Speaker 2: it really looks like the tax burden on their workers,

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Speaker 2: and it looks like what's going on with public safety

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Speaker 2: has become a secondary concern of that. So you know,

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Speaker 2: you can count on that going on the ballot. I

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Speaker 2: think you're gonna also count on organized opposition to it,

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Speaker 2: particularly if it's going to be going into the general

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Speaker 2: fund where these guys can spend it at will.

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Speaker 1: Well, it's an easy thing to say, we can generate

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Speaker 1: more tax revenue by increasing income taxes, and of course

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Speaker 1: it stands to reason that might happen. But fortunately people

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Speaker 1: in this country have the ability to pack up their

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Speaker 1: bags and move, which is happening across this country article

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Speaker 1: after article after article on a state level. On a

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Speaker 1: local level, if you make things terrible by way of

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Speaker 1: not dealing with crime, homelessness, drug abuse, or you defund

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Speaker 1: the police, crime runs a buck. You have wolf prosecutors

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Speaker 1: who aren't putting people in jail, things deteriorate, People tend

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Speaker 1: to leave. And also if you put an open and

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Speaker 1: welcome to do business sign on the City of Cincinnati.

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Speaker 1: What business and it's right? Mine is going to shoose

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Speaker 1: within the city limits to operate a business when they

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Speaker 1: can just jump outside of the city limits or maybe

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Speaker 1: even outside of Hamilton County and choose one of the

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Speaker 1: more attractive counties or cities to set up shop in.

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Speaker 1: We're in competition. Increase in income tax is not good

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Speaker 1: for residents moving into the area, I would guess.

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Speaker 2: No, I think it's terrible. And I'll tell you what

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Speaker 2: we and I think you just put your finger on

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Speaker 2: why A lot of the business community and business leaders

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Speaker 2: don't really care. Is a lot of their employees now

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Speaker 2: can work from home. Yes, you know our competition. Everyone's

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Speaker 2: thinking like, oh my god, our competition is Indianapolis or

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Speaker 2: Columbus or whatever for this business. No, our competitions Madeira

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Speaker 2: and Green Townsip and you know Marymont and these these

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Speaker 2: you know, self sustaining municipalities where life's pretty good. Sycamore Towntip,

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Speaker 2: you know where if you totally work from home using

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Speaker 2: your laptop and do not have an actual office downtown,

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Speaker 2: you no longer have to stay the city or in

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Speaker 2: text even though your employer is downtown. There are workarounds.

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Speaker 2: I mean you can thanks to Microsoft teams, Zoom and

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Speaker 2: a really in a nice internet connect and a lot

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Speaker 2: of white collar workers who are highly compensated and who

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Speaker 2: pay the bulk of this tax can work from home.

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Speaker 2: So you know, that is a new reality, and I

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Speaker 2: don't We have not actually had an income tax increase

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Speaker 2: during this work from home era, and I think they

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Speaker 2: may be in for a very rude awakening. It might

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Speaker 2: not lead to the level of increased factor seats that

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Speaker 2: they are anticipating. And it also goes to the prime

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Speaker 2: issue because people are looking to get out of downtown

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Speaker 2: right now. I mean they are. I mean I hear

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Speaker 2: an anecdotally. I've got real estate clients downtown. You know,

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Speaker 2: just these these viral images of these fights like an

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Speaker 2: Opening Day or you know, on the Fourth Street brawl

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Speaker 2: last year. I mean, no matter what people how they

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Speaker 2: try to recharacterize them, they hear the living daylights out

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Speaker 2: of a lot of people who don't have to be

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Speaker 2: downtown every day. But it's used to be. So it's

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Speaker 2: a problem too.

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Speaker 1: That's a great thing about America. You have choices on

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Speaker 1: where you live, where you want to you know, pay

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Speaker 1: tax dollars. Let's have a good return on invent which

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Speaker 1: apparently the city's not delivering on. Steve Gooden, I wish

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Speaker 1: you were still on council because you're a voice of

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Speaker 1: reason and common sense and we certainly miss one on

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Speaker 1: sinceey City Council pointing out again elections have significant consequences,

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Speaker 1: and well you deal with you lay in the bed

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Speaker 1: you made by voting, Steve will I hope you get

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Speaker 1: to join the program again real soon. You always are

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Speaker 1: on for really important subject matters, and I appreciate your

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Speaker 1: willingness to spend time with my listeners and me.

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Speaker 2: Sir, got it. It's an ampoloone honor Brian, you take

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Speaker 2: care of Thanks for having me on.

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Speaker 1: You do the same, Steve Gooden, Porter Wright is the

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Speaker 1: firm seven twenty seven right now