DOWNTOWN - Supporters of a ballot measure to charge a tax on Reds and Bengals tickets gathered Sunday to round up volunteers to collect signatures on Election Day.
The Cincinnati chapter of Class Action USA (Citizens' League Against Subsidized Sports) is aiming to have the initiative on the March 2012 primary ballot. Supporters need to collect 7,468 signatures from registered Cincinnati voters.
The deadline is the first week in January, according to Hamilton County Commissioner Todd Portune, who earlier this year proposed the tax.
Only city residents could vote on the measure, because it requires amending Cincinnati's charter. Supporters will visit 41 polling locations in the city Tuesday.
"Since we can only get Cincinnati registered-voter signatures ... what better place to be to make sure that you're getting registered Cincinnati voters than at Cincinnati polling places on Election Day as people have voted," Portune said outside at City Cellars, where supporters were gathered. "So we're pretty much guaranteed that every signature we get is going to be a good signature."
Portune said a couple thousand more signatures are needed.
A recent Enquirer/Survey USA poll of 1,200 Hamilton County residents showed 63 percent supported taxing tickets to Reds and Bengals games.
In the city, 60 percent of residents surveyed said that they supported the tax. The poll was conducted last month.
Portune said "the poll put a lot of energy into our efforts to make sure that we follow through to see this to the end."
Hamilton County voters approved a half-cent sales tax in 1996 to build Great American Ball Park for the Reds and Paul Brown Stadium for the Bengals. But the tax hasn't produced enough revenue for the county's stadium fund. The fund could have a $14 million shortfall by the end of 2012. The shortfall is expected to grow every year without fixes to the fund.
Hamilton County Commissioner Greg Hartmann has said a user tax is the best option, but the county's lease with the teams doesn't allow for it.
Portune said the leases prohibit the county from putting on a ticket tax, and the county isn't doing that. He said it's a citizens' initiative arising in the city that city voters would adopt.
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