League of Women Voters of Ohio Education Fund
Hamilton County, OH November 8, 2005 Election
	Michael Earl Patton Answers Questions Candidate for Council Member; City of Cincinnati

Questions & Answers

1. What are your Qualifications for Office? (50 word limit)

I am qualified for office through my education ( I also have BS's in physics and aeronautical engineering and a BA in German), my experience in starting a small business, and several years of community volunteering in the low-income housing and right-to-life areas.

2. What plans do you have to address your top three priorities? (100 word limit)

1) I am committed to the Collaborative Agreement and the community and the police working together to fight crime through the community problem-oriented policing program described in it. 2) I am speaking up about council's actions to raise property taxes, especially where they deny doing it. I will also fight unneeded projects and tax breaks to only specially-selected companies. Additional savings may be possible through county-wide unification of certain services, as is currently done with the library system. 3) Currently Cincinnati is the only jurisdiction which pays its hare for a county-wide bus system. I would insist on local control unless the county starts paying its fair share.

3. What steps would you take to ensure that all public facilities are accessible to people with disabilities? (100 words limit)

I would first discuss the problems of access with the various disability advocacy groups for the deaf, blind, wheelchair-bound, and others. Only then could I decide what steps need to be taken.

4. What specific steps will you take to expand recycling services in your community? (100 words limit)

I would continue the current curbside recycling program. Any expansion would have to be cost-effective.

5. What steps would you take to provide affordable housing for all residents of your community? (100 words limit)

Affordable: Cincinnati must first preserve its existing stock of affordable housing and not tear them down in favor of more expensive housing as it did with the Huntington Meadows apartment complex and as it plans to do with English Woods. Cincinnati (and Hamilton County) must also get ever-increasing property taxes under control. Since Cincinnati has been quietly raising these taxes through TIF districts, and has structured these so that taxes will continue to increase for years to come, the burden on fixed- and limited-income homeowners will continue to increase.