Downtown street car update

Columbus, OH – When Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman first floated the idea of a downtown street car system in 2006, he promised no income or property tax increases would be used to pay for it. But to paraphrase Shakespeare, a tax by any other name is still a tax, and Coleman's streetcar funding plan unveiled last nght would have nearly everyone paying for construction and operation of the system. That's because Coleman says the 103 Million dollar, 2.8 mile line from mound street near the county courthouse, up high street to 11th avenue near the OSU campus, would be funded through public money and user fees. Coleman says there are plenty of people in the so-called benefit zone from which to draw.