Bengals fans have grown accustomed to disappointment over the past three decades. After all, any fan under the age of 30 doesn't remember the last time they won a playoff game. (No need to Google: it was Jan. 6, 1991).

But the thrashing the Bengals received at the hands of the winless Steelers Monday felt different, like a breaking point for some.

Do people still feel The Bengals are worth retaining? At least one elected official turned to Twitter Tuesday morning to say no.

"Go @Bengals," tweeted Mike Moroski, a Cincinnati School Board member and prominent Democrat. "Seriously, just go. (Oh, but please pay all of your property taxes before you leave - you know, for the kids and all the other services you short-changed to field a losing team built on one man's greed)."

Moroski said his tweet was motivated by the drama over The Banks and the music venue and not Monday night's game.

"I don’t see what they do to improve the city unless there is something I’m missing," he said.

By 2026 when the Bengals lease at Paul Brown Stadium expires, elected leaders will have to decide whether they want the Bengals to stay, and if they do, what they're willing to pay to keep them here.

Upgrades to Paul Brown Stadium could cost $300 million, according to estimates by county officials.

Where the county stands

For now, most local politicians, at least the ones involved in the decision-making process, say yes, they want the Bengals to stay. But they might not be as generous to the team as they were 20 years ago when voters approved a 0.5 percent sales tax to build the riverfront stadiums.

Hamilton County commissioners Todd Portune and Denise Driehaus want them to stay.

The other commissioner, Stephanie Summerow Dumas, didn't want to comment when asked by The Enquirer.

Portune has not always seen eye-to-eye with the team, suing them twice and losing in an attempt to get a better deal for the taxpayers.

He pitched a failed cigarette tax and a ticket tax, which petered out when nobody took up the signature drive needed to put it to voters.

He told The Enquirer's That's So Cincinnati podcast in September the region is better with The Bengals.

"I prefer a Cincy metro region that has them than one that does not and that does nothing to affect my love for U.C. Bearcats football because I like college football better ... and played college football," Portune said. "I like us having the Bengals more than I'd like us not having the Bengals."

There are limits to what the taxpayers should do to keep them, Portune said. What those limits are, he didn't say.

"At some point we've got to say no more," Portune said. "If you're going to stay, stay. If you're going to go, go. But we're not giving you anything else."

Driehaus, the president of the Hamilton County Board of Commissioners, said she hates the current terms of the lease for Paul Brown Stadium. But she thinks the Bengals are an "economic driver" for the region. She hopes the county and the team can negotiate a better deal for the taxpayers in 2026.

"Of course we want to keep the Bengals, but we have to deal with the lease," said Driehaus, a Democrat like Portune. "That's what we intend to do."

Cranley says he's a fan

Same for Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley. Cranley, more than any other elected leader, has criticized the county's deal with the Bengals to move a concrete company for more tailgating. He believes it gave the team too much power over riverfront development.

That doesn't mean he's not a Bengals fan.

"As a huge Bengals fan, of course, they should stay," Cranley said. "However, I am concerned about any expectation that the taxpayers have a never-ending commitment to pay for the stadiums."

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