The Lily Pad partnership in Cincinnati is volunteer and donation based: The network brings together the City of Cincinnati, Time Warner Cable, and Project Lily Pad, part of Give Back Cincinnati, a non-profit. The idea is to find sponsors who contribute small amounts of money to fund particular hotspots for an extended period of time. Avoiding any taxpayer dollars avoids a political debate and keeps the future more certain as legislation wouldn't affect this private operation. Time Warner Cable sponsors a large waterfront hotzone. Twenty locations are online now with 55 more in the works!
The other half of the story is that Time-Warner's high speed internet competitor Cincinnati Bell also partners with local businesses to offer WiFi access. Cincinnati Bell's offering is free for customers of their dial-up and DSL services and pay for everyone else.