Organizers: Petition to put FC Cincinnati money on ballot has failed

Cameron Knight | Cincinnati Enquirer

Show Caption Hide Caption MLS welcomes FC Cincinnati FC Cincinnati was announced as the newest expansion team to join Major League Soccer Tuesday, May 29, 2018 at Rhinegeist Brewery in Over-the-Rhine.

A group opposed to FC Cincinnati's West End stadium plans has failed to get enough signatures to put the $17 million of city money promised to the team to a public vote.

"We have examined and analyzed all of our petitions with a fine tooth comb ... we do not have the 6,400 valid signatures," petition organizer and former City Council candidate Brian Garry told The Enquirer on Tuesday. "We have decided not to submit our petitions to the city."

The Coalition Against an FC Cincinnati Stadium announced its plan to claw back the city portion of the hotel tax last month on the same day FC Cincinnati was granted a Major League Soccer spot. The coalition is led in part by Garry and another former City Council candidate: Michelle Dillingham.

If the coalition gathered enough signatures, an issue would have appeared on November's ballot leaving it to voters to decide if the stadium will get the money. Wednesday is the group's deadline for collecting signatures.

Had the coalition been successful and the issues passed, the city's commitment to the project would have been cut in half.

More: FC Cincinnati stadium critics try last-ditch effort to claw back millions from team

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The group attempted the same tactic to stop the ordinance outlining all the city money going to the stadium's infrastructure, but that ordinance was passed as an emergency measure, making it immune from a referendum.

While FC Cincinnati will see about $17 million from the hotel tax, the bonds will require the city to pay $1.5 million annually for the next 30 years, essentially these are loan payments that may cost taxpayers $45 million in the end.

When the coalition began its petition drive, Garry called the stadium plan social engineering.

"They want the West End to change both socioeconomically and racially," Garry said. "How they redeveloped Over-the-Rhine shows what they want in a development: that means little to no affordable housing, few people of color and almost no black-owned businesses."

Garry has said he plans to keep holding FC Cincinnati accountable but is also focused on pressuring City Council to support human services funding.

"This unwise use of our tax dollars to subsidize corporations has caused a 32 million deficit, gutting Human Services funding," Garry said. "These basic human services, these life-or-death circumstances should be taken seriously by our city leaders."

Garry said if the city stopped tax dollar giveaways to corporations there would be plenty of tax dollars to assist those suffering from homelessness or dying from heroin addiction.