Commissioners press for itemized breakdown of $24.47M 2025 lodging-tax budget; ask for clarity on community investments and leases

Hamilton County commissioners scrutinized the county's 2025 lodging-tax budget during the Jan. 23 meeting and requested staff provide a clearer, itemized breakdown of several line items.

County staff presented the lodging-tax budget for 2025 as $24,470,000 and summarized the consent agenda, which included that budget (item 3) along with other routine finance and personnel actions. Commissioner Alicia Reese pressed staff for details on specific line items that she said were unclear on the budget worksheet: the Cincinnati Black Music Walk of Fame (a community investment funded from restricted lodging-tax receipts), a $130,000 rent line described as the ground lease on the Millennium site, a $132,900 entry listed as payments to "other jurisdictions," $15,000 for insurance, and $10,000 labeled "contractual services."

Staff said the walk of fame is included under the community investments line—"it's lumped in with community investments," staff said—and agreed to provide a separate breakout. On the $130,000 rent line, staff said that amount is a ground-lease payment tied to a parcel adjacent to the Millennium site; the county currently pays rent on that parcel and is examining whether it makes sense to acquire the lease with bond proceeds in the future. The staff explanation said the rent is being paid out of the lodging-tax balance for now.

On payments listed as "other jurisdictions" (the hearing referenced a $132,900 figure), staff said Ohio law requires lodging-tax distributions to jurisdictions without their own lodging tax and that the county has in the past reported those distributions; staff offered to refresh a report showing which jurisdictions receive payments and how much each receives. When Commissioner Reese noted the line item label includes "UC" (University of Cincinnati), staff clarified the chart-of-accounts label is "University of Cincinnati and other jurisdictions" and that the label does not mean UC specifically is receiving a payment in every instance.

Commissioners also discussed item 6 on the consent agenda: adoption of a personnel policy to implement the federal Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. Commissioner Summeraldon noted a lactation room is available on the fifth floor of the Hamilton County building and Commissioner Reese asked staff to provide an inventory of physical accommodations (lactation rooms and other facilities) across the county's portfolio of buildings, and to confirm whether free period-product dispensers recommended in an earlier Commission on Women and Girls resolution have been installed in county buildings and at stadiums as previously discussed.

Staff agreed to provide an itemized breakout of the lodging-tax community investments and a refreshed report on distributions to other jurisdictions, and to prepare an inventory of facility accommodations and period-product dispenser installations.

The questions did not block the consent agenda. Commissioners voted to approve the consent agenda items (2 through 8) during the meeting; staff committed to follow up with the requested detail.