CINCINNATI -- A proposal that would require beggars to register with the city failed to get enough votes in City Council and has been sent back to committee.

The proposed ordinance, based on a 2-year-old Dayton, Ohio, law was the latest attempt to clamp down on aggressive panhandling in Cincinnati.

Councilman John Cranley, who voted for the plan in the Law and Public Safety Committee on Monday, joined four other members of the nine-member council in voting against the proposal Wednesday. He said he now believes the plan to be "fundamentally and totally flawed" and considers the registration a license to beg.

"It will create a permanent industry of panhandling in the city," Cranley said.

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Cranley also opposed a companion measure to spend $50,000 on a social service program to help panhandlers find shelter, food, jobs and substance abuse treatment. He said $50,000 to deal with only 30 problem panhandlers seemed expensive, and he worried that the program would set up "a permanent bureaucracy and advocate for panhandling."

The city unsuccessfully has tried several approaches to controlling panhandling.

A federal magistrate struck down a previous panhandling law in 1998, saying its restrictions on begging were unconstitutional.

The city passed another law in 2002 that outlawed begging near automated bank teller machines, bus stops and crosswalks. That law also prohibited panhandling after dark.

Downtown merchants said panhandling problems increased after that law went into effect. Police said it was difficult to catch and prosecute offenders.

Councilmen Pat DeWine and David Crowley, who proposed the registration ordinance, modeled it after a similar one in Dayton, where merchants say it's been effective in curtailing the most abusive beggars.

DeWine said the proposed ordinance would give police another tool to go after problem panhandlers by allowing officers to revoke licenses and cite anyone begging without a license.

Social service agencies also could use the registration system to get more information on panhandlers and their needs, Crowley said.

DeWine sent the proposed ordinance back to his Law Committee on Wednesday after it failed to get enough votes in council. Crowley said they would "build some more fire" under the ordinance and bring it back in a week or two.

Mayor Charlie Luken, who had threatened to veto the $50,000 in spending on a social worker, predicted the proposal would never get out of committee.

Stay tuned to WLWT Eyewitness News 5 and ChannelCincinnati.com for updates.