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"Cincinnati's mayor says that if streetcar supporters can find a way to pay for operating costs, he'll work with them.Mayor John Cranley said the city cannot take on the liability of the operation's cost for a streetcar. Cranley said he and streetcar supporters met late Wednesday night to come up with a compromise.Watch this story\"I'm willing to partner with them if they can guarantee the operating expenses before we incur additional costs,\" he said.Councilman Kevin Flynn said the guarantee can come in any form that works, but it must last for at least the minimum 25 years that the streetcar would have to operate since some of its funding is federal.Cranley said those costs could reach $80 million or more. In turn, the city will agree to borrow the money to complete phase one of the project.Watch: News conference / Noon coverage\"Cash -- it can be pledged assets, it can be securities, it can be real estate,\u201D Flynn said.The Haile Foundation has already pledged $425,000 for the project.\"(It\u2019s a) little unrealistic to think that someone's going to come up with $80 million in less than a week to fill a gap that hasn't even been defined yet,\" foundation spokesman Eric Avner said.The statement came three days after supporters of the project said they will head off the city administration's efforts to scrap it by trying to put the issue before the voters in a special election.The deeply divided city council voted last week to stop all spending on the $133 million project while an outside firm studies costs.The Federal Transit Administration has given the city until Dec. 19 to decide whether to move forward with the project, giving supporters a week to find the money. Project supporters want to see if that deadline can be extended until New Year\u2019s Eve in order to give them more time to find the operating revenue.\"It's obviously a huge, huge hurdle, and as I said, it might not be possible,\" Cranley said, noting that he would agree to ask the FTA for an extension, but it may not be granted.It would be unprecedented for any city\u2019s streetcar system to have private funding step in at the last minute to guarantee operation and maintenance for a 30 year period.The streetcar has been under construction for months, with city streets torn up and the first rail laid.Streetcar supporter and Councilwoman Yvette Simpson says it's a \"gun-to-your-head ultimatum\" but that it could be doable.Streetcar supporter Ryan Messer, who is organizing an effort to put the issue before voters, called Thursday's move a positive \"crack in the door.\"Simpson said the city has never required a project\u2019s operating costs to be paid upfront before.\"We don't have all the operating costs for Smale (Riverfront Park),\u201D Simpson said. \u201CIt's just so unprecedented.\u201DCranley said he still believes that it will cost less to end the project than go forward, but without the operating costs to pay for, he would be willing to compromise, despite the fact that the streetcar \"isn't my highest priority.\"\"If it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out,\" Cranley said.Cranley said his first priority is fixing the budget and funding emergency services fully. Emphasizing that the city faces a challenging deficit in the coming year, Cranley said he would not support the streetcar project if it jeopardizes ongoing city operations.But he acknowledged that numerous private conversations have been occurring about guaranteeing that money to operate the system won't have to be borne by taxpayers.That has been a key condition for newly-elected Councilman Kevin Flynn, once a streetcar supporter who voted last week to temporarily halt the work to build it.Still, streetcar supporters said they are cautiously optimistic about the possibility of raising the operating funds."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.wlwt.com/article/cranley-streetcar-can-go-on-if-private-funds-cover-operating-costs/3537938>