BY ANNE MICHAUD
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The Hamilton County police computer agency that won a tax increase at the ballot just two weeks ago has learned it may be eligible for a federal grant of $10 million to $30 million for new technology -- the very thing the property tax increase was for.
Tom Russell, director of the countywide computer agency known as CLEAR, said he found out about the grant program a week before the ballot vote.
"It was too late to take the issue off the ballot, and we don't know if we're going to get the grant," Mr. Russell said. "This is just an application."
The increase in the CLEAR levy will raise about $21.5 million over its five-year life. It is to be spent to replace mobile data terminals in police cars, upgrade an automated fingerprint matching system and add document imaging, among other things.
The grant could open a new vista of technology beyond that, Mr. Russell said, bringing fingerprint checks, mug shots and other data directly into police cruisers. He may also propose an automated vehicle location check, which tells headquarters where the cruisers are.
"Basically, the intent is to keep the officer on the street as much as possible," he told Hamilton County commissioners Monday.
Christopher Finney of the Tax Levy Review Committee, which scrutinized the CLEAR request before it was placed on the ballot, said any federal grant should result in a refund of property taxes.
"There was no need CLEAR expressed to us that was not fully funded, except for wish list items," Mr. Finney said Monday. "To the extent there are additional federal or state dollars, my expectation and hope is they would come back to the taxpayers in the form of property taxes."
Dusty Rhodes, who serves on the budget commission which would decide any property tax levy refund, said, "We'll definitely take a look at it."
The grant program, called COPS More '98, is funded for $200 million through the Department of Justice, Mr. Russell said. Executives of IBM made him aware of it.
The county would have to provide a 25 percent match for any federal funds received. The application deadline is June 5.
If CLEAR wins the grant, Mr. Russell said he might recommend cutting the property tax. "If the request is approved, we will re-evaluate the position of the levy and the need," he said in an interview.
The vote earlier this month raised taxes for the owner of a $100,000 home from $6.66 to $15.15 a year for CLEAR.
