Tuesday, February 08, 2000
City gets big boost in budget
Redevelopment's goal in 9 neighborhoods
BY PAUL BARTON
Enquirer Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON — A major increase in redevelopment aid for Cincinnati and funding that moves the cleanup of the former Fernald defense plant into the final stretch highlighted Tristate-related proposals in the 2001 budget proposal President Clinton unveiled Monday.
The president is calling for an increase in empowerment zone spending for Cincinnati and 14 other cities. Cincinnati's funding would increase to $10 million from $3.6 million.
The empowerment zone program involves targeting redevelopment aid to nine neighborhoods — Avondale, Clifton Heights-Fairview Heights, Corryville, Evanston, Mount Auburn, Over-the-Rhine, Queensgate, Walnut Hills and the West End.
The increase proposed by the president matches a longstanding lobbying goal of Cincinnati officials.
But a spokesman for U.S. Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Cincinnati, said the proposed increase is uncomfortably close to levels advocated last year by Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., a key Clinton administration ally.
While supporting the empowerment zone concept, Mr. Chabot thought the proposed $10 million a year in spending sought by Mr. Rangel was too much too soon and could create accountability problems, said Chabot aide Gary Lindgren.
“In a lot of areas, this kind of money hasn't been well spent,” Mr. Lindgren said.
On Fernald, the administration is proposing $290.79 million in cleanup funds for 2001, a 5.8 percent increase over the current level of $274.52 million.
The Fernald plant, northwest of Cincinnati, was the site of uranium processing for nuclear weapons during the Cold War.
Some of the other Cincinnati-related items in the budget:
• An almost $400,000 increase in the annual budget of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, putting its funding at $49.6 million. Rep. Rob Portman, R-Terrace Park, said that would guarantee a continued presence of the agency in Cincinnati.
• $500,000 for continued work on cleanup and flood-control of Mill Creek.
• $3.02 million for continued flood-control work along Duck Creek.
• $1 billion increase in the budget for the National Institutes of Health, bringing them to $18 billion. The University of Cincinnati has benefited greatly in recent years from increases in NIH funding and the grants the institutes award. UC currently receives almost $90 million a year in NIH grants when the UC medical complex is added in.
• $500,000 for work on commemorating the Underground Railroad, a nationwide project that has Cincinnati as its focus.
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