Cincinnati officials are preparing to spend the first investment returns from the sale of the Cincinnati Southern Railway. City Council members agree that historically disadvantaged neighborhoods should be prioritized, but disagree on how to accomplish that.
Voters approved the sale of the city-owned railway in November 2023 and the deal officially closed in March 2024. At that time, the Board of Trustees transitioned from overseeing the city’s ownership of a railway to overseeing management of the trust fund set up with the $1.6 billion sale proceeds. UBS is working as investment manager.
A year later, the Board of Trustees has agreed to send the city $56 million for fiscal year 2026, which begins July 1. That's about double what the city would have gotten this year from leasing the railway to Norfolk Southern. Per state law, the money can only be spent to maintain or replace existing city-owned infrastructure, like roads, buildings, parks, recreation centers, and health centers.
So how will the city spend the additional revenue?
“Cincy on Track” Plan
As part of the fiscal year 2025 budget, City Council voted in June 2024 on how to spend the final $26 million lease payment from Norfolk Southern:
- Recreation Facilities Renovation: $2,376,500
- Park Infrastructure Rehabilitation: $2,719,000
- Street Rehabilitation: $12,916,500
- Traffic Signals Infrastructure: $1,435,000
- Victory Parkway Complete Street: $3,040,000
- City Facility Renovation and Repairs: $141,000
- Health Property Structural Integrity: $986,000
The FY25 budget also included about $2.8 million of new revenue resulting from the railway sale. City Council approved spending that money for:
- Outdoor and Athletics Facilities Renovation: $1.3 million
- City Facility Renovation and Repairs: $500,000
- Street Rehabilitation: $41,000
- Price Hill Health Center Parking Lot Expansion: $2,841,000
Future spending is broadly outlined in City Manager Sheryl Long’s “Cincy on Track” plan, which was initially released ahead of the sale in late 2023. Broadly speaking, Long is prioritizing recreation, parks, streets and bridges, public services, and health. She says more than 80% of proposed spending will go to neighborhoods with a median income of less than $50,000.
Long will release specific spending plans in her draft of the next city budget, which is expected to be released May 23. From there, City Council will have the option to amend the budget draft before taking a final vote before the end of June.
An promises to transparently track how railway revenue is spent. As of April 7, the dashboard shows $532,440 spent out of $3.8 million committed.
“Rising 15” Plan
Vice Mayor Jan-Michele Kearney, along with Council members Victoria Parks and Scotty Johnson, they . In this “Motion to Ensure Equity in the Disbursement of Proceeds,” they identify 15 neighborhoods as the “Rising 15,” which they say should benefit from more city investment as well as private economic development.
The motion calls for the creation of two funds:
- The “Rising 15 Railroad Fund” would allocate at least 10% of the city’s investment revenue to the neighborhoods identified in the motion
- The “Rising 15 Economic Development Fund” would include at least $15 million initially (source not identified) plus at least $3 million annually (from the city’s General Fund) to be awarded to developers
The 15 neighborhoods are:
- Roll Hill
- Millvale
- English Woods
- Lower Price Hill
- Queensgate
- Winton Hills
- South Fairmount
- West End
- East Westwood
- Avondale
- Roselawn
- Mt. Airy
- East Price Hill
- South Cumminsville
- North Fairmount
Kearney says the plan is a response to community concerns about how the city would spend the railway sale revenue.
“So many people in the community were saying … you're going to get the proceeds from the sale of Cincinnati railway, and then they're not going to come to underserved communities, they're going to go where the money always goes,” Kearney told WVXU. “And so we said, let's try to get something in place to ensure equity.”
Council never acted on the motion, so the three sponsors re-filed it in January. Council amended it to request a report from city administration instead of directing the administration to enact the motion.
That in late March, combined with other requests for information about the city’s plan to spend the railway revenue. Somewhat buried in the eight-page report is City Manager Sheryl Long’s response: “the administration does not recommend” executing the plan.
Vice Mayor Kearney says in some ways, she agrees with Long’s assessment.
“It’s still looking at underserved neighborhoods, she just has a broader look,” Kearney said.
Instead of the “Rising 15” neighborhoods, Long’s plan for spending the revenue includes a high priority for neighborhoods where the median household income is below $50,000 a year. That list equals 30 of the city’s 52 neighborhoods, including all of the “Rising 15.”
Kearney says although she’s not fully satisfied with that response, it’s something she can live with for now. On the other hand, Kearney says she doesn’t agree with the city manager’s dismissal of a separate economic development fund.
“I think it's important to set aside funds, whether it comes from this capital budget or something in the future,” Kearney said. “But I do think we need to look at our neighborhoods that are underserved and be intentional. And that's really the issue — to be intentional about getting investment in them, don't just say we just hope it happens.”
Kearney says she’ll continue working with the city manager’s office about the plan before bringing it before Council again.
"Swapping out" railway money
State law is very specific about how railway sale revenue can be spent: only on city-owned infrastructure. In other words, the city can’t legally spend the money on new projects, whether they be city-owned or through private development.
So how could the city establish an economic development fund for the "Rising 15" neighborhoods? Kearney says it’s a basic swap-out.
"Normally, we would have spent our capital budget money on certain projects if they’re existing infrastructure owned by the city,” Kearney told WVXU. “We can [now] use railway money for that, which means we can save some money."
Some other city officials say that’s exactly what they promised not to do when asking voters to approve the railway sale.
"I believe it's contrary to what we pitched and promised to voters — we said if we sold the railroad, we'd have increased money to spend on infrastructure," said Budget and Finance Chair Jeff Cramerding. "We need to see our capital infrastructure investments grow and our number of deferred maintenance or failing infrastructure fall. So that's what we promised the voters, and that's what I intend to see happen."
Kearney disagrees.
“The only reason it's not a message change is because there's still that fund Number One, according to our motion, that says this infrastructure has to be fixed, and so there's a plan for that,” Kearney said. “It doesn't stop us from doing infrastructure maintenance.”
How was the “Rising 15” determined?
With the “Rising 15” list still in play, WVXU has taken a closer look at how these neighborhoods were identified. The motion says the list was created using “demographic and socioeconomic data,” which Kearney specified as the 15 neighborhoods with the lowest median household income, according to Census data analyzed by the city’s Office of Performance and Data Analytics (OPDA).
WVXU’s independent review of the data revealed discrepancies between the OPDA data and the list included in the “Rising 15” motion.
First, OPDA combines Lower Price Hill and Queensgate into one neighborhood because of the small area of each; combined, the two have a population of 1,070 people and a median household income of $15,987. The “Rising 15” list separates the two, listing each neighborhood with a population of 1,070.
In addition, there are three neighborhoods not included on the “Rising 15” list despite having lower median household income than others that are included: Corryville, Walnut Hills, and CUF.
“We made exceptions,” Kearney said when questioned about the data. “It really doesn’t make sense to say a neighborhood like CUF doesn’t have any investment … just from my experience looking at these neighborhoods and just knowing these neighborhoods are the ones where projects constantly come before us for projects.”
Pressed on whether any data supports that idea, Kearney did not have immediate answers.
“I don't have the data to show you exactly how much we've invested in Corryville, Walnut Hills or CUF, although it's available so I could get it,” Kearney said. “But I don't want to say I used it for this, because if I was going to be totally honest, I did not.”
A member of Kearney’s staff later emailed WVXU, pointing to city development projects and building project permits as reported on Cincy Insights, a public data portal. Building project permits are primarily for things like HVAC and plumbing, and are therefore not necessarily indicative of new investment in a neighborhood. WVXU also pulled data for construction permits. See all of that data below:
Kearney told WVXU she’s open to amending the “Rising 15” list, and says it was intended to be updated over time.
What happens next?
City Council has the final say on the city budget, which includes how to spend railway sale revenue.
City Manager Long and Mayor Aftab Pureval are expected to release the first budget draft May 23; this should include a detailed list of all projects proposed for railway money spending.
City Council will have until the end of June to vote on any changes to that budget draft, and to vote on a final budget.
Kearney says she would like to see a new economic development fund for the “Rising 15” be included in this budget, but says she will still push for passage outside of the budget process if needed.
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