By Gregory Korte
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Cincinnati City Council approved a landmark budget Wednesday, balancing a $35 million deficit with a little help from a revenue booster called the "jock tax."

By a 6-3 vote, City Council voted to apply the city's 2.1 percent earnings tax to visiting athletes, musicians and other entertainers - even if they're just passing through.

The National Football League, Major League Baseball and their two players unions brought lawyers to Cincinnati to lobby against the tax, and local arts groups and concert promoters protested that the tax would also hurt their ability to bring in top talent.

The tax is expected to generate $940,000 a year, according to the most recent analysis of 2002 salary data by the city's income tax commissioner.

The vote came during City Council's last meeting of the year, which began with the arrest of a protester and ended four hours later with an emotionally charged debate over the police contract.

In between, City Council passed a two-year, $2 billion budget, eliminated two city agencies, moved toward privatizing more city services, repealed air pollution standards and enacted changes to its affirmative action program.

By unanimous votes, City Council eliminated the Planning Department and the Office of Environmental Management.

Planning will be merged with Community Development in an effort that Mayor Charlie Luken said would result in a more "developer-friendly" City Hall.

With no environmental agency to enforce it, City Council repealed the air-quality program known as Title X, which allowed the city to go after polluters as public nuisances.

The $2 billion spending plan, the first proposed by Mayor Charlie Luken as "strong mayor," won a unanimous vote through council horse-trading by Finance Committee Chairman John Cranley last weekend.

In other action, City Council:

Approved a race-neutral affirmative action program for small businesses to replace racial preferences struck down as unconstitutional in 1998.

Republicans voted against a portion of the program that gave mandatory 20 percent set-asides to small businesses on large construction contracts. Democrats hope that minority-owned firms will get many of those small-business contracts.

Urged the appointment of a "managed competition czar" to oversee the privatization of city services. Council's conservative coalition won the 5-4 vote to more aggressively push the contracting out of city services like street sweeping, convention center management and printing services.

Council members hope to save $25 million by making city agencies compete for those contracts. That money would be earmarked to save the recycling and yard waste collection programs, which are slated for cuts in 2004 without the savings.

Created 11 neighborhood TIF districts. "Tax-increment financing," made famous for the $6.6 million subsidy that kept Saks Fifth Avenue downtown, will now also be available for neighborhood business districts.

E-mail gkorte@enquirer.com