The pending appeal by the Reds of a local judge's ruling that the team must pay $6.5 million in back rent to Hamilton County taxpayers will be supported by county government.

        Reds attorney Jim Burke said the appeal will be filed “in the next day or two.”

        Two of the three county commissioners think the Reds should not be held responsible for paying the debt because the team's new lease to play in Great American Ball Park forgives it.

        Only Commissioner Todd Portune thinks the county should remain silent as the appeal winds through the court system.

        “With all due respect to the Reds, the rent is owed,” Mr. Portune said. “We could take that money and funnel it right back into the riverfront.”

        But commissioners Tom Neyer and John Dowlin say a deal is a deal. The $6 million was considered as the county negotiated a lease to keep the Reds playing in the new stadium for the next 35 years.

        “We should support the original intent of the (lease) with the Reds,” Mr. Neyer said. “Forgiveness of the back rent was a fundamental economic component of the deal.”

        Ownership of Cinergy Field was transferred from the city to the county six months after Steven Ritter, of South Fairmount, filed his suit in 1996.

        Three years later, the county negotiated a lease with the Reds for the new stadium that waives the back rent payments.

        But a Common Pleas judge ruled in December that the team would have to pay the back rent because it is still playing at Cinergy Field under terms of the old lease.

        Ronald Burdge, attorney for Mr. Ritter, said it's odd that commissioners are so unconcerned about the back rent when they've just approved a budget that cut social services and raised a variety of fees and taxes.

        “I would have thought by now the county commissioners would begin to take greater interest in protecting the taxpayers than they have so far,” Mr. Burdge said. “But they're still perfectly willing to sweep this $6 million debt under the rug.”

        Brian Hurley, a chief assistant prosecuting attorney for the county, confirmed Wednesday that his office will file a brief supporting the Reds' appeal when it is made.

        Mr. Dowlin was out of town Wednesday, but his aide Rob Fredericks said the debt is really part of a numbers game.

        “The county could have forced the Reds to pay the rent, then added $6 million to their contribution for the new ballpark,” Mr. Fredericks said.

        Mr. Burdge dismissed that argument.

        “The only game being played here is on the taxpayers,” he said.

        The Reds' attorney, Mr. Burke, said the debt was forgiven because, as part of the lease, the Reds agreed to pay far more than that in construction costs of a new park.

        The back rent is forgiven only if the Reds pay $30 million in construction costs and stay in the new facility for the full 35 years.

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