Hamilton County officials are about to spend a lot of your money. They don't want to talk about it.

When Hamilton County and the Bengals negotiated a new stadium lease late last year, the two sides put out a statement that answered some questions about what was new and what was changing.

But it didn’t explain everything.

It didn’t, for example, say how much county taxpayers might have to pay to buy land for a Bengals practice facility on the riverfront. It didn’t reveal much about a proposed music venue next to the stadium. And it didn’t say what other give-and-take might have gone on between the team and the county to reach the deal.

County officials say none of that is anyone’s business but their own. They say anything they’ve talked about is top secret, for their eyes only, this-recording-will-self-destruct-in-five-seconds kind of stuff.

The Enquirer knows this because it asked to see county emails and related documents connected to the negotiations in October and November, in hopes of better understanding the costs and benefits to taxpayers.

Read more: https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2019/07/09/hamilton-county-taxpayers-records-bengals-deal-official-eyes-only/1677689001/