The questions were prepared by the League of Women Voters of the Cincinnati Area and asked of all candidates for this office.

See below for questions on Qualifications, Top Priority, Pressing Issues, Public Transportation, Government cooperation, Clean Air, Neighborhoods

Click on a name for other candidate information.   See also more information about this contest.

Answer from Pat DeWine:

Since 1999, I have served as a member of Cincinnati City Council, where I have consistently fought wasteful Council spending and worked to reduce the burden on taxpayers while improving the quality of life in Cincinnati.

Answer from Eve Bolton:

I'm a life-long resident of Hamilton County, 31-year veteran teacher, and Association President at Wyoming Schools. As a citizen-politician, I was privileged to serve as a Mt. Healthy Councilmember, president of the College Hill Redevelopment Corporation, and as Hamilton County Recorder. The Commission needs a woman's voice and a perspective other than a lawyer's.

Answer from Pat DeWine:

We must get control of spending growth in both the general fund and in the special levies. I am truly committed to keeping spending and tax growth below the rate of inflation. We must take strong measures to reduce the disparity between property taxes in Hamilton County and in the surrounding counties. By controlling spending and taxes, we can help make the County more competitive with other regions and help end the trend of population and job loss.

Answer from Eve Bolton:

I will move all non-management personnel to Civil Service. I will initiate a 40-hour work week for the county. I will fund a fully staffed and funded public defender's office so that the defense of indigent defendants is not privatized. I will provide competitive and open bidding for all county contracts and vendors. I will make sure that the Commission exercises full oversight over all independently elected county officials. I will demand a full public audit of the state division of Jobs and Family Services, which to date has incorrectly accounted for the billions of federal dollars for welfare. None of this can be accomplished without two-party government and an experienced executive who is not a career politician. At the heart of these reforms is the willingness to cut the county budget and reduce personnel by 15%. The taxpayers can no longer subsidize a corrupt county Courthouse culture.

Answer from Eve Bolton:

The loss of both population and green space. Both can be addressed by immediately cutting the cost of government. We can institute a four-year plan to significantly reduce the tax burden. Reducing our tax burden and more wisely spending revenue will allow us to invest in established communities and improve our schools. While being fiscally responsible, we can also make a commitment to protect our natural beauty through smart growth benefiting citizens, not special interests.

Answer from Pat DeWine:

Controlling the Tax Burden: I'm committed to keeping spending below the inflation rate. Hamilton County's the highest taxed large county in Ohio, and has the second largest population loss of any US county. We need to reverse the trend of population and job loss.

Reforming County Government: I'm committed to making government more accountable and providing higher quality services more efficiently. We must end insider deals and restore trust and confidence in government.

Answer from Eve Bolton:

Transportation is an area where the county hasn't lived up to the original Metro agreement. The county must pay into Metro more funds directly and cease development without mass transit alternatives. We will not have light rail soon enough, if ever. What we can do is change the class culture of Metro by changing Metro coaches and increasing runs. Metro must increase hubs and become fully wired so clients can work on the way to work. We must also have more cross county (east + west) lines of transport. A cost effective way to increase transportation would be to think more about using the Mill Creek as our guide rather than the interstate corridors. It's also time to increase both the safety and viability of foot and bicycle paths of transport. County and other government agencies can also extend flex scheduling and off-site work to reduce the congestion during peak hours.

Answer from Eve Bolton:

We must reduce the cost of governing. One way to accomplish this is for the county and local governments to work in a more cooperative manner. Citizens must demand a new cooperative way of governing. This cooperation will be based on shared responsibilities, which will reduce duplication of services, and increase purchasing power. No community would lose its identity or independence but each would have a greater chance of success if we forge a cooperative government alliance.

Perhaps the county could take the lead and create health consortiums to reduce benefit costs within your community's city and school budgets. I'm sure we could combine the purchasing power of more local governmental units in order to reduce the cost of doing business. Let's develop a countywide Reasonable Growth Plan that would attract more investment in our established communities rather than stretch existing capital for new development.

Answer from Eve Bolton:

We know that our region has been determined to have too high of a concentration of pollutants. We must engage in a plan to reach the ozone standard established by the USA EPA. In order to reach that standard, the county should adopt most of the OKI recommendations and the county should become both a facilitator and enforcer.

The county should invest in better transportation systems, lower industrial emissions significantly, and increase monitoring of air quality in historically high pollutant neighborhoods. The county should also provide respiratory checks for school age children and all independently living elderly. The county should agree to the demise of corrupt and wasteful state controlled E-check and return to a more localized E-check and safety lane system. The county must provide tax incentives to fuel alternative vehicles and businesses and become an environmentally conscientious consumer whenever it spends our tax monies.

Answer from Eve Bolton:

Yes, we must use our resources to invest in our established communities and direct capital funds to help our economically and socially diverse neighborhoods. We are currently investing too much money in new development infrastructure and too little in infrastructure in our established neighborhoods. We need a Homerama for redevelopment and more localized zoning for neighborhoods. We need to save our business districts with a mix of residential, specialty, service commerce small-scale transportation hubs, and small community recreational centers that serve as learning and gathering centers. The county could also help our established neighborhoods by increasing public education regarding citizen patrols outside the city limits and fast tracking individual development! Finally, the county needs to develop a complete property inventory list and monitor all properties owned by absentee landlords and public housing developed for profit.

The order of the candidates is random and changes daily.