Why did the city fire UC’s Economics Center?
When was the last time you heard anyone in City Hall criticizing the academic work of the University of Cincinnati for ANYTHING? And on top of that, have at least two members of city council cheering about it? Probably never before.
Well, that is what took place at the December 8th meeting of city council’s Budget and Finance Committee. The city’s new Finance Director essentially trashed the quality of UC’s economic forecasting and reported that he has instead brought economic forecasting “in-house.” And you had Councilmembers Cramerding and Jeffreys crow about how great it is that the city has dumped UC.
That was it. No explanation of what the “dissatisfaction” withthe economic forecasting of our university was all about. Obviously, behind the scenes they all talked about it and decided the public did not need to know any more than that. I guess it is none of our business? I wonder what UC thinks about what was said?
I thought it was so outrageous that I’ve written to the Finance Director with a few questions (with a copy to the head of UC’s Economics Center).
In episode 41 of “Citizen Watchdog with Todd Zinser,” which is in the works, we are going to connect the dots about how bringing economic forecasting, in-house, is related to the projected deficit and the future “revenue enhancements,” e.g. tax increases, which were also mentioned quite matter-of-factly by the Finance Director .
UC’s Income Tax Forecast 2020 -2026 ; the Tentative Tax Budget presentation: and the email to the Finance Director follow:
UC’s Income Tax Forecast FY2022-2026
Presentation Tentative Tax Budget
