By James Pilcher
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Those in favor of the light rail proposal defeated by Hamilton County voters in November gave more than $700,000 to their cause, compared with the approximately $10,000 collected by those opposed to Issue 7, recent campaign finance reports filed with the Hamilton County Board of Elections show.

That ballot initiative, which would have raised Hamilton County's sales tax rate by a half-cent and helped pay for a $2.6 billion light rail plan, was resoundingly beaten, with 31 percent of voters saying yes.

Between Oct. 17 and Dec. 6, the pro-Issue 7 campaign, "Let's Get Moving," raised $385,431 in direct contributions. That report was filed Dec. 13.

That put the campaign's total at $717,169 in direct cash contributions for the entire campaign (the committee was formed in mid-September). The campaign also spent a total of $659,564, with most of that going either to extensive ad buys or consultants and campaign staff.

The largest contributor during the final period was American Financial, which gave $35,000. Five other companies gave $20,000 or more, including Procter & Gamble, and Federated Department Stores.

"Everything boils down to time and money, and absolutely, we would have chosen more time if given a choice, because the money was there," said "Let's Get Moving" chairman John Schneider, referring to the fact that the initiative was not placed on the ballot until August.

"We needed more time to develop our arguments and expose the weakness of the opponents' arguments, but we did educate a lot of folks on this."

At the same time, the anti-Issue 7 campaign Alternatives to Light Rail Transit (ALRT) raised $4,800 in the final period. Combined with previous contributions, the effort garnered $10,474.

"There were probably a lot more dollars available for contributions, but I felt the right thing to do was go out in the public and argue the topic," said ALRT chairman Stephan Louis, a Pleasant Ridge medical supplies salesman, whose organization spent $9,970, including $4,100 to place an ad on Time Warner cable.

The largest contributor to the anti-Issue 7 campaign was the Homebuilders Association of Greater Cincinnati, which gave $3,000 to the cause in late October.

"We were surprised to have been the largest contributor, but our executive committee agreed with 69 percent of the voters that this was not the way to go," said association president Darrell Leibson.

Hamilton County Commissioner John Dowlin, who served as a co-chair for ALRT, last week nominated Mr. Louis for a soon-to-be vacant seat on the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority. The authority oversees Metro and placed the tax issue on the Nov. 5 ballot. The other two commissioners blocked the nomination.

E-mail jpilcher@enquirer.com