Latest / Brian Thomas / Jonathan Pearson for Hamilton County Commissioner
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: 805 55 care cd talk station happy wednesday pleased to
- 0:06Speaker 1: welcome the 55 care c morning show he is running
- 0:09Speaker 1: for county commissioner you have three choices and my next
- 0:12Speaker 1: guest jonathan pearson is one of those choices jonathan great
- 0:14Speaker 1: to have you on the show this morning.
- 0:15Speaker 2: Welcome well good morning brian thank you.
- 0:18Speaker 1: And i'll encourage my listeners uh to the extent they
- 0:20Speaker 1: want to hear what the candidates for county commissioner have
- 0:22Speaker 1: to say there's a really i would say a well
- 0:24Speaker 1: done wvxu morning edition uh article out there when they
- 0:28Speaker 1: talk to each one of the candidates and about their
- 0:30Speaker 1: policies and what they're, you know, what you want out
- 0:32Speaker 1: of the commission and what you plan on changing, addressing
- 0:34Speaker 1: the concerns. But I just wanted to start off by
- 0:37Speaker 1: the last point you made in your conversation. I am
- 0:40Speaker 1: old school. You have questions. Just call me and you
- 0:43Speaker 1: post your phone number. 513-562-0611 or email Pearson for transparency
- 0:50Speaker 1: at gmail.com. You have an open door policy and you
- 0:54Speaker 1: haven't even been elected yet, Jonathan. I think that's very cool.
- 0:58Speaker 2: Well, I figure that if this is about the citizens
- 1:01Speaker 2: and it's their money, we don't have nuclear codes in
- 1:03Speaker 2: the Hamilton County, so I've never understood the secrecy that
- 1:06Speaker 2: goes on in government anywhere in Cincinnati or the county.
- 1:10Speaker 1: Or candidates that refuse to debate their opponents. That's not you, Jonathan. Well,
- 1:15Speaker 1: that's true. Anyway.
- 1:18Speaker 2: I've actually had a lot of people give me a
- 1:20Speaker 2: direct phone call, and I'm glad that they have. And
- 1:22Speaker 2: they've texted me, and thanks. I'm happy to respond to them.
- 1:25Speaker 1: Perfect. rarely do we hear from a politician or a
- 1:29Speaker 1: candidate for political office that is that open and willing
- 1:31Speaker 1: to talk to folks of any political stripe that want
- 1:34Speaker 1: to call them up. So Jonathan, I salute you for that. Now,
- 1:38Speaker 1: what are you here? Why are you running for County commissioner?
- 1:41Speaker 1: And what are you hearing that people want addressed by
- 1:44Speaker 1: Hamilton County commissioners? Because there's only a finite amount of
- 1:47Speaker 1: responsibility that County commissioners have, but it does extend into
- 1:50Speaker 1: most of our lives in some way, shape or form.
- 1:53Speaker 2: Well, what I always tell people is it's the most boring,
- 1:55Speaker 2: important job in the county because it deals with our money.
- 1:59Speaker 2: And nobody ever talks about it. That means every dime
- 2:03Speaker 2: of tax and property dollars eventually flow through there. And
- 2:07Speaker 2: that's a lot of money. And people just kind of like, oh, yes,
- 2:11Speaker 2: it does this, this, and this. And, you know, it's
- 2:13Speaker 2: okay as long as they can go to work in
- 2:15Speaker 2: the morning. You know, they never think twice about it
- 2:17Speaker 2: until January and July when they have to pay that
- 2:21Speaker 2: tax bill. And that's the big one. the property tax
- 2:24Speaker 2: bills are just getting crazy. Mine has literally doubled in
- 2:28Speaker 2: 16 years in Fairfax. I mean, doubled. In 16 years,
- 2:33Speaker 2: you know, now, that's my big thing. My simple proposal
- 2:37Speaker 2: to that, Brian, for your taxes on your property tax,
- 2:40Speaker 2: and this affects renters. I want everybody to know this.
- 2:44Speaker 2: Renters pay property tax. There's no such thing as a
- 2:46Speaker 2: benevolent landlord that says, nah, I won't add the property
- 2:49Speaker 2: tax to my building onto that. So renters pay property tax,
- 2:53Speaker 2: and I hate hearing people say renters don't pay it.
- 2:57Speaker 2: And if it's a four-unit or bigger in Hamilton County,
- 3:00Speaker 2: there's a premium put on top of that property tax.
- 3:02Speaker 2: So renters of four units or bigger are actually paying
- 3:05Speaker 2: more property tax percentage-wise than I or you are. So
- 3:09Speaker 2: my simple proposal is this. What you paid for your
- 3:12Speaker 2: house is what your taxes are based on. That's it
- 3:15Speaker 2: until you die or leave. It's not complicated.
- 3:20Speaker 1: There's not that capital gains penalty that people are dealing
- 3:22Speaker 1: with right now. I'd like to express it in terms
- 3:24Speaker 1: of that you don't pay any taxes until you sell
- 3:27Speaker 1: your investments and you pay taxes on what you earn.
- 3:32Speaker 2: Exact same principle. We thought it was stupid when Kamala
- 3:35Speaker 2: offered it for stocks. Why do we go home and say, yeah,
- 3:38Speaker 2: but it's not stupid for our house?
- 3:40Speaker 1: It's a great point. And, you know, this whole issue
- 3:43Speaker 1: to me centers around seniors. You know, at least I'm
- 3:46Speaker 1: still making a salary. My wife is. We can afford
- 3:48Speaker 1: the outrageous property tax bill, but we've got a source
- 3:51Speaker 1: of revenue. Seniors many times are on a fixed income,
- 3:53Speaker 1: and you're basically taxing them right out of a place
- 3:56Speaker 1: that they own outright. That's sinful, if I can call
- 3:59Speaker 1: it that.
- 3:59Speaker 2: Brian, many years ago, I sat in a council meeting
- 4:01Speaker 2: at a particular city. I'll be kind to the city.
- 4:04Speaker 2: I was going to mention them by name, but I won't.
- 4:08Speaker 2: A couple came in. They've been living there for many years,
- 4:11Speaker 2: and they said their tax bill is $ 9, 500. And they
- 4:15Speaker 2: said that's more money than we paid in any year
- 4:18Speaker 2: paying our mortgage, our insurance, and our property taxes then.
- 4:21Speaker 2: A councilman stood up at that meeting, looked at that
- 4:25Speaker 2: elderly couple dead in the eye, and said, you can move.
- 4:28Speaker 1: Oh, wow.
- 4:30Speaker 2: We don't need that kind of BS anymore. said to
- 4:33Speaker 2: our citizens, I'm sorry, I don't care whether you're a Democrat,
- 4:35Speaker 2: a Libertarian, an Independent, or a Republican. We don't need
- 4:39Speaker 2: that kind of BS being said to them. If you
- 4:41Speaker 2: want to live in a particular community, there's no excuse
- 4:44Speaker 2: that the government's taxing you out of living there. And
- 4:48Speaker 2: that just irritates me.
- 4:50Speaker 1: It's sort of a form of not forced loyalty, but
- 4:54Speaker 1: if you're loyal to where you live, You're less inclined
- 4:57Speaker 1: to move if you know you're not going to have
- 4:58Speaker 1: to continue to pay inflated property taxes each and every
- 5:01Speaker 1: year they raise them. So, you know, there's incentive to stay,
- 5:04Speaker 1: which I would think many counties would want.
- 5:07Speaker 2: Well, see, that's what I want is say you redo
- 5:10Speaker 2: your kitchen and you actually paid, legitimately paid $ 35, 000 to
- 5:13Speaker 2: redo your kitchen. That's great. But they come along and say, well,
- 5:17Speaker 2: since you redid your kitchen, we think it added $ 90, 000
- 5:19Speaker 2: in value. They add $ 90, 000 to your value of your
- 5:21Speaker 2: tax base. not the $ 35, 000 you actually paid. That's what
- 5:28Speaker 2: I want. So that way, if you do a renovation,
- 5:30Speaker 2: it's only the actual monies you spent on that renovation
- 5:34Speaker 2: to your contractor if you did it yourself.
- 5:36Speaker 1: Fair enough.
- 5:37Speaker 2: Not there. And that, to me, is very fair. But
- 5:40Speaker 2: the biggest thing this does, Brian, if I have a
- 5:43Speaker 2: 3.7 mil levy against my house... They come back in
- 5:49Speaker 2: seven years and say, well, we're not raising your taxes.
- 5:51Speaker 2: It's going to stay 3.7. Well, of course, my house
- 5:53Speaker 2: raised $ 200, 000. Of course, you're going to get triple what
- 5:57Speaker 2: you were making before. Well, now they actually have to
- 5:59Speaker 2: come back and say, we want 7.4. And nobody votes
- 6:03Speaker 2: for a 7.4 levy. And this changes how they have
- 6:07Speaker 2: to ask for a tax. This changes the idea that
- 6:11Speaker 2: schools are getting $ 20, 000, $ 25, 000 per student tax. in the
- 6:15Speaker 2: public school system to educate them with, you know, in
- 6:18Speaker 2: Cincinnati is, I'll be honest, it's pure crap. You have
- 6:22Speaker 2: a 19% readiness rating to go to college from the 52% graduates.
- 6:26Speaker 2: That's awful. 9% of the people that go through Cincinnati
- 6:31Speaker 2: schools are ready for college. How awful is that? And
- 6:37Speaker 2: yet we're paying a fortune and they're asking for another
- 6:39Speaker 2: ton of money.
- 6:40Speaker 1: They are, and that's the kind of thing I was
- 6:41Speaker 1: speaking of earlier this morning. Are you going to reward
- 6:44Speaker 1: the Cincinnati Public Schools when that's the type of education
- 6:47Speaker 1: outcome you get in return for what may be very
- 6:50Speaker 1: well a lot more money out of your pocket if
- 6:52Speaker 1: the levy passes?
- 6:54Speaker 2: The one thing commissioners have by fiscal solvency, fiscal responsibility,
- 7:00Speaker 2: is this. In any neighborhood that you have issues with finances,
- 7:05Speaker 2: you see crime. And if we can start to help
- 7:09Speaker 2: to stabilize it through something, through getting through the state
- 7:11Speaker 2: to change the tax base of how we tax homes
- 7:14Speaker 2: and properties, and including apartment complexes, I include those in
- 7:18Speaker 2: that because renters are citizens too. People tend to act
- 7:21Speaker 2: like they're some pariah. They're not. And I think that
- 7:25Speaker 2: we've missed that. But if we can tame down the
- 7:28Speaker 2: economy in that way, crime starts to tame down. And
- 7:32Speaker 2: guess what happened? Businesses look at Hamilton County and go,
- 7:34Speaker 2: I like it. Because honestly, the first job of a
- 7:37Speaker 2: Hamilton County commissioner is to be the cheerleader for the county.
- 7:40Speaker 2: Because I tell people, you go from Cleves to the
- 7:43Speaker 2: east side, it's like going through three different states in
- 7:45Speaker 2: this county. This is an awesome county. I love going
- 7:48Speaker 2: through Hamilton County. And ironically, not those three different states,
- 7:53Speaker 2: but it's like three different sets of people from, you know,
- 7:56Speaker 2: go clear to the west side, middle, clear to the
- 7:58Speaker 2: east side. It's kind of funny. We always joke about
- 7:59Speaker 2: don't crossing the wall at 75 from east to west.
- 8:05Speaker 2: But there is a distinct difference, and I think that's
- 8:06Speaker 2: a beautiful reality of our county. But people don't look
- 8:10Speaker 2: at it that way because we're so worried about the
- 8:12Speaker 2: crime that's happening in the dead center of it, right,
- 8:14Speaker 2: mainly in Cincinnati itself. But, you know... Through that, we
- 8:20Speaker 2: can start to tame that down because the other thing
- 8:23Speaker 2: that the commissioners do take care of is the budgets
- 8:25Speaker 2: that go through the sheriff's department. It goes down to
- 8:28Speaker 2: the prosecutor's office to jail, other things like that. And
- 8:31Speaker 2: those are all things that affect the safety and the
- 8:33Speaker 2: willingness of citizens to want to stay or leave. But
- 8:36Speaker 2: businesses want to come in. And guess what happens when
- 8:39Speaker 2: we have more businesses? We have better tax bases and
- 8:41Speaker 2: we can keep our taxes lower. So commissioners have a
- 8:44Speaker 2: great effect on this county about its safety and its
- 8:47Speaker 2: fiscal responsibilities.
- 8:48Speaker 1: Well, you even acknowledge, I suppose, when you're talking to WBXU,
- 8:51Speaker 1: you have limited authority to change the current tax structure
- 8:54Speaker 1: insofar as property taxes are concerned. That would be.
- 8:57Speaker 2: A state issue. The voice of a commissioner is very big.
- 9:01Speaker 2: It's very big because, you know, old school methodology of
- 9:05Speaker 2: the state was that the commissioners of counties were very powerful. Well,
- 9:10Speaker 2: the irony is that old school didn't change. They still are.
- 9:14Speaker 2: We just got new technology and new things, but that
- 9:16Speaker 2: voice is still very powerful and carries a lot of weight.
- 9:20Speaker 2: And Hamilton County is one of those heavyweight counties that
- 9:23Speaker 2: can throw a lot of voice to Columbus. And Columbus
- 9:26Speaker 2: doesn't immediately respond and say, oh, because they said this. No,
- 9:28Speaker 2: but it makes a lot of people think. Plus the
- 9:30Speaker 2: bully pulpit by being able to come on shows like yours,
- 9:34Speaker 2: TV and others and say, hey, we really should make
- 9:37Speaker 2: this better for the citizens. You start getting the grassroots
- 9:39Speaker 2: efforts of people talking to their citizens. representatives and saying, hey,
- 9:45Speaker 2: that's a good idea.
- 9:48Speaker 1: We're talking with Jonathan Pearson this morning, or I'm talking
- 9:50Speaker 1: with Jonathan Pearson. We are all enjoying the benefits of
- 9:52Speaker 1: insight into his campaign for county commissioner here in Hamilton County.
- 9:55Speaker 1: Early voting's going on right now. You can get in
- 9:57Speaker 1: there and vote for Jonathan. I think it's a strong bet.
- 9:59Speaker 1: Don't go away, Jonathan. I'm going to get some more
- 10:01Speaker 1: of your campaign platforms. What are you going to do
- 10:03Speaker 1: when you are elected county commissioner? Talk station. It's 819
- 10:08Speaker 1: at 55KRC, the talk station. Very happy Wednesday to you.
- 10:12Speaker 1: Talking with Jonathan Pearson, running for Hamilton County Commissioner. Feel
- 10:18Speaker 1: free to call him directly 513-562-0611 or shoot him an email,
- 10:23Speaker 1: pearson4transparency at gmail.com. Open door policy he has. I love
- 10:27Speaker 1: that out of the gate. And one of the other
- 10:29Speaker 1: things we have to deal with in Hamilton County, we
- 10:31Speaker 1: have a real sewer problem, Jonathan. I feel terribly sorry
- 10:35Speaker 1: for folks whose basements flood with sewage and the cleanup.
- 10:38Speaker 1: And this has been going on for a long, long time.
- 10:41Speaker 1: Is there any control the Hamilton County commissioners have over
- 10:44Speaker 1: getting projects accomplished and alleviating this problem that we have
- 10:49Speaker 1: over and over again, Jonathan?
- 10:52Speaker 2: Well, the reality is the county owns the sewer department.
- 10:55Speaker 2: It's run by the city. Therein lies part of the problem.
- 10:59Speaker 2: The city is so tied up in making sure that
- 11:02Speaker 2: we do quotas, DEI and all the other... DEI stands
- 11:06Speaker 2: for doing everything idiotically. Let's just be honest with you.
- 11:09Speaker 2: That's exactly what that stands for. They actually have to
- 11:13Speaker 2: order parts individually at the sewer department and Metro sewer
- 11:17Speaker 2: from a DEI supplier who only deals with subsidiaries that
- 11:22Speaker 2: are DEI. I can go to Grainger and get the
- 11:25Speaker 2: same part within a day or a week when they're
- 11:27Speaker 2: waiting six weeks to six months for the same part. Now,
- 11:31Speaker 2: what do you think that does to getting a job done?
- 11:33Speaker 1: Oh my Lord.
- 11:35Speaker 2: And what do you think that does to the cost?
- 11:37Speaker 2: But they won't tell you that that's why the delay is.
- 11:40Speaker 2: They'll just say it's because of this or that. So they're,
- 11:43Speaker 2: The absolute stupidity of when we start putting all these
- 11:47Speaker 2: things in there, if we actually ran the city and
- 11:50Speaker 2: the county on meritocracy as opposed to making sure that
- 11:53Speaker 2: we did a certain subset, did this or that, we
- 11:57Speaker 2: would stop 90 percent of our problems. But for all
- 12:00Speaker 2: of us, our bills went from three months to one month,
- 12:02Speaker 2: and we're paying the same in one month that we
- 12:04Speaker 2: used to pay for three months.
- 12:05Speaker 1: Tell me about it. Oh, my word. Every time I
- 12:08Speaker 1: get that bill, I just my mouth falls open in disbelief.
- 12:10Speaker 2: And it's ridiculous. But, you know, they figured they could
- 12:13Speaker 2: pull a fast one on us. Well, they won't notice that. Yeah,
- 12:16Speaker 2: they tripled our bills. Now, add that to the property
- 12:19Speaker 2: tax and everything else. And people are wondering why they
- 12:21Speaker 2: can't afford to stay in their homes. I don't care
- 12:24Speaker 2: that we've seen inflation come down. The real person isn't
- 12:29Speaker 2: sitting out there going, well, at least inflation is only 2.9. Well,
- 12:32Speaker 2: who gives a damn at this point? Because you're just
- 12:34Speaker 2: trying to figure out how to pay your bills.
- 12:37Speaker 1: Bills that won't go down.
- 12:39Speaker 2: Well, they won't go down because we're allowing too many
- 12:42Speaker 2: of these subset ideas to be thrown into the mix
- 12:46Speaker 2: that have nothing to do with the production of the job.
- 12:51Speaker 2: And so what I would like to do is sit
- 12:52Speaker 2: down and look at that budget, have a meeting every
- 12:55Speaker 2: single Monday morning with MSD and say, what are you
- 12:58Speaker 2: doing this week and what did you get done last week?
- 13:01Speaker 2: And where's our cost factor in this? And if we
- 13:04Speaker 2: hold them to the fire every week, not once a quarter,
- 13:07Speaker 2: whatever else they're doing, I don't even know what their
- 13:09Speaker 2: schedule is. But my thing, I used to work for
- 13:12Speaker 2: a private estate that I helped subdivide. I was the
- 13:15Speaker 2: general foreman for the property. It was 200 acres. Real
- 13:19Speaker 2: simple thing. You know what we did? Every Monday, okay,
- 13:22Speaker 2: what are we doing this week? What are we going
- 13:24Speaker 2: to get done? You think this is going to be
- 13:25Speaker 2: done in time? Are we going to stay within the
- 13:27Speaker 2: track of our budget this week? And you know what
- 13:30Speaker 2: happened every Friday? We could have a checklist of, well,
- 13:34Speaker 2: we need to make sure we get this done. Or
- 13:36Speaker 2: we did. We're ahead of time. It wasn't complicated. We
- 13:40Speaker 2: did the same thing on the golf course when I
- 13:42Speaker 2: was helping run golf courses. It's not complicated. So, well,
- 13:47Speaker 2: you can't do it because they're just a big department. Well,
- 13:50Speaker 2: what does size mean? Size doesn't mean anything. It just
- 13:53Speaker 2: means there's more people. You still have a few people
- 13:55Speaker 2: who control it. So you sit down with them and say,
- 13:57Speaker 2: what's going to go on this week? And we always
- 14:00Speaker 2: act all surprised. They're just so big. You know, it's
- 14:03Speaker 2: really hard to get everything together. We're not trying to
- 14:05Speaker 2: get every single worker in the sewer department together every Monday.
- 14:08Speaker 2: We're getting the core people saying what's going on.
- 14:12Speaker 1: Makes sense.
- 14:13Speaker 2: It's not complicated.
- 14:14Speaker 1: Best practices. What you're suggesting is they're not engaging in
- 14:18Speaker 1: best practices. They're not reflecting on the inefficiencies that surround
- 14:21Speaker 1: them each and every day and doing something about it. Jonathan.
- 14:25Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, on the flip side, though, I will say
- 14:27Speaker 2: the citizens do have to step up to their part.
- 14:30Speaker 2: You know, when MSD comes through and says, we need
- 14:33Speaker 2: to dig up your front yard to do this, don't
- 14:35Speaker 2: be sitting there and saying, yeah, but that's my front yard.
- 14:37Speaker 2: So don't dig here. Why do you think Fairmont, which
- 14:40Speaker 2: is a poor neighborhood, got a beautiful drainage system and
- 14:44Speaker 2: Mount Lookout, Hyde Park and all the other places that
- 14:47Speaker 2: got flooded? Because I go to church at St. Cecilia's
- 14:49Speaker 2: in Oakley and it was actually on a festival night
- 14:51Speaker 2: that that massive rain came through. Thankfully, we're here. We've
- 14:55Speaker 2: mitigated the flood in our own buildings here at the
- 14:57Speaker 2: campus of St. Cecilia's. But a lot of people did
- 15:00Speaker 2: lose a lot of stuff. Why? Because a lot of
- 15:02Speaker 2: the residents of these areas said, I don't want you
- 15:04Speaker 2: digging up my yard. You'll tear down my favorite tree.
- 15:07Speaker 2: You'll do this. Well, unfortunately, there is a reality to
- 15:10Speaker 2: the citizen side. We are going to lose some shrubs
- 15:12Speaker 2: and bushes to get this stuff split apart. So we
- 15:15Speaker 2: just have to accept that there are certain realities of
- 15:17Speaker 2: living in a densely populated neighborhood. that certain things are
- 15:22Speaker 2: going to have to change just because of reality. When
- 15:25Speaker 2: you dig up the ground to get to those pipes,
- 15:26Speaker 2: you can't just simply slide these through like you do
- 15:30Speaker 2: your dog fence. It isn't the same thing.
- 15:32Speaker 1: It's a nymph-y action, not in my front yard.
- 15:36Speaker 2: Yeah. But unfortunately, it does have to be in your
- 15:41Speaker 2: front yard or your backyard or your side yard. And
- 15:45Speaker 2: once we can get past that, but I think if
- 15:47Speaker 2: we can let people realize that MSD is being accountable
- 15:50Speaker 2: to the budget, we suddenly get a little less tense
- 15:53Speaker 2: about what they're doing. Again, it gets back to fiscal responsibility.
- 15:57Speaker 1: Jonathan Pearson, running for county commissioner. He's on the ballot.
- 15:59Speaker 1: I encourage you to get out and vote, as I
- 16:01Speaker 1: have been. I know I'm a broken record when it
- 16:03Speaker 1: comes to that, but I'm going to have Vivek Ramaswamy
- 16:06Speaker 1: on the show tomorrow, and I think he's going to
- 16:07Speaker 1: say the same thing, as will every other guest, as
- 16:09Speaker 1: we fast approach November. Jonathan Pearson, it's been a pleasure
- 16:12Speaker 1: talking with you. Appreciate your open-door policy. I love what
- 16:15Speaker 1: I'm hearing. And I hope that, you know, if you're
- 16:17Speaker 1: elected county commissioner, and we can only pray for that,
- 16:19Speaker 1: that you do make some inroads with the state government
- 16:22Speaker 1: on taxes. That's a huge issue for so many people.
- 16:26Speaker 1: And that crosses party lines, doesn't it, Jonathan?
- 16:29Speaker 2: Oh, I haven't found a single person of any party, persuasion,
- 16:33Speaker 2: anything that's looked at me and said, that's crazy. No,
- 16:35Speaker 2: they all said the same thing. Oh, if you could
- 16:39Speaker 2: get that through, I'll come and kiss you.
- 16:41Speaker 1: I'm working on it.
- 16:42Speaker 2: That was my favorite, funniest one I had a response from.
- 16:46Speaker 1: Trust me on that one, Jonathan. Look, hey, bipartisanship exists.
- 16:49Speaker 1: Lower our damn property taxes, Jonathan Pearson.