Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

A reply to Proceed Cautiously

Divorce Issues


I think you may have misunderstood Broke?’s point here, or I did. The goal is not to take money from the township but to stop giving them money for nothing (and your chicks for free! (sorry)). Each city taxpayer pays at least an administrative fee yearly for what? NOTHING! Nothing but the attacks and insults thrown by the three exalted ones and the glory to breathe the same air as them. We also pay something link 6 ?½ mils for what? The fire department? Maybe one of these posters can tell us the cost per $100K that 6 ?½ mils is so we can see how much fire department we can buy with that money plus something like 41% of the assets of the current fire department.


Can you please quantify the cost efficiency of the current fire department? The Chief, Asst. Chief and several firemen are friends of mine so no insults are being hurled here but have you ever heard, ever of the three wise men NOT giving them money for anything asked for? Again, no insinuations here but I really would need to see evidence of your assertion of efficiency.


I beg to differ on parks on two points. First, a lot of people do care. City residents care that they pay to play for all the parks and the township non-taxpayers get to play for free. There is an underlying resentment here. Second, although cities are probably mandated to provide some sort of parks system, as a city resident, I would rather not have any parks than having the moron that is over them continue to have that large budget to use with no intelligence or ability to do so. I know this cat from high school. Did you know that like our new assistant city manager, former service director, zoning director and many, many on staff, he has been fired from every other job he had before good old Picktown picked him up? I?’ll get hammered for getting personal on this site but come on, hire some skilled, intelligent and motivated people to run things and maybe you?’ll see some progress.


As to raising taxes on township residents, is this a guess on your part? Again, please quantify your statement. If the city got the township?’s share of all property taxes everywhere they collect from, would any tax increases be required? Prove this statement to me.

I won?’t even discuss the Ricketts?’ with you. They are good people and have a right to sell their property. They also have the right to apply for zoning changes. Why should only the Ricketts?’ have to be subjected to what they are over selling their land? What about the Diley?’s, Dunlaps, Myers?’, Yaple?’s and Weltlich?’s and all the others?

I think you might be wrong about traffic signals. I think in a municipality all that is required is a traffic engineering study to approve a light. If that weren?’t true, why would we have a light every 26.3 feet up 256?

On schools I would only say that you are giving way too much credit where none is deserved to the board for the quality of our kids?’ education. I give the credit to the teachers, principals, guidance staff, the students AND the parents. The board is just an anchor around the district?’s neck.

As to the rich kids not being in the city schools, what is different between what you caution and the North/Central socioeconomic division?

Prove your case to me please and I?’ll continue this debate.

A Question

Dear Broke city taxpayer,

If you simultaneously annex all available township land and create a separate Pickerington city school district, then won't you be re-creating all the growth problems that currently exist in the PLSD? It would seem more prudent to EITHER annex all available township land OR create a separate Pickerington city school district.

It will go forward

Proceed Cautiously

I believe it will take multiple pages here to explain some of the errors in your statements or assumptions.

I have spoken to a couple members of Pickerington City Council in the last few days and I am not sure exactly where they stand at this point. I have also been looking into the auditor?’s web site and I do have some numbers that may be of interest to you.

Trying to say that the Township provides services to the City taxpayers is going to be a very difficult argument for you to win. The City crews plow the City streets. They are not dependant upon the Township. The fact is the city taxpayers pay the township government .6 Mills and that works out to be around $160,000 per year. The Township then uses that money to sue the City to prevent them from annexing or what ever they please to do with the money. The Township receives around $120,000 per year from service payments at their exclusive Canal Pointe Industrial Park in Canal Winchester Ohio. In exchange for that $120,000 service payment Violet Twp must maintain the streets in this industrial Parks.

SO WHY SHOULD PICKERINGTON CITY TAXPAYERS PAY FOR SERVICES TO CANAL AND VIOLET TWP WHEN THEY HAVE THOSE CAPABILITIES IN HOUSE?

Then there is the Fire Department. Currently the city residents pay (along with all who live in Violet Twp) 7.01 effective millage to the Fire Department ran by the trustees. The most recent budget posted on the State Auditor?’s site (2003) say that the township fire budget was a little over $5 Million. They took in a little over $5.5 Million. On the county Auditor?’s web site you will find the total property valuations. Pickerington?’s property valuation is $349 Million and the Township valuation is $728 Million. The City?’s portion is real close to one third. By the time this all goes down (if council has the guts to do so) I think the property valuation will increase to over the one third mark.

So if we do some simple math one third of the property taxes paid to the Fire Department $1.815 Million would be maintained in the city taxpayers coffers. I hear the City would get one third of Fire Department?’s assets (Fire House, Engines and medics). The fact is most of the city runs are being serviced from the Lockville Road station and that asset would more than likely be retained by the City.

What many in the township do not know is that the City can supplement their safety services with income tax revenues and impact fees. Impact Fees that the trustees refuse to impose. Does the City really need a ladder truck and that big honking rescue van/squad?

I know when Lee was Mayor he pushed the cooperative agreement things with the neighboring governments. I asked him to run again in 1999 but he turned it over to Randy which was a disaster.

So here we go again and when I heard the talks fell through once again I was livid. Fortunately for the community there are cooler heads on council and in the City government. I have talked with a couple of them and I will wait 6 months before I try a ballot type approach if they don?’t act.
















By Broke

Marching onward

Continued

I also wanted to address your argument about asking the Columbus Residents how they feel about being taken out of Violet Township. Do you really believe any of them lived in Violet Twp prior to their home being built in Park Place? Something must be good up there because they sure keep coming into there to live.

Proceed Cautiously: To be a Violet Township resident you must have completed your indoctrination period and classes with flying colors.

What happens if after this creation of a paper twp the Pickerington City Residents actually get a lower tax package? There are indications that it could happen.

On the issue of a City School system within the borders of Pickerington and following the Groveport model. I will tell you that I attended a neighborhood party a couple of weekends ago. About half of the attendees had children in the school system. I think if Groveport is successful in their efforts Pickerington voters may make a similar move. There is still a lot of resentment from the City voters against those rich people as you describe them in the township. Those same Rich people are the ones that are responsible for the North complex now let them pay for it. Besides if the Township is going to block the City in everyway possible in future annexations (they have said so publicly) then why should Pickerington pay for the growth in the township? It was the township who rezoned the high density sub-divisions like Villages at Sycamore Creek and Spring Creek all in an effort to box in Pickerington.

MAYBE IT IS TIME FOR PICKERINGTON TO DEVELOP A POLICY OF BETTER NOT BIGGER AND FORGET ABOUT THE OUTSIDE WORLD


I would say once we understand what council is going to do in the next 6 months then the first step would be to run an initiative to directing the City Council to start the process of creating a paper township. I believe it would be far too complicated to try to cover all of the issues of a paper township by an initiative. However I do think judging by the response of two council members that the Council this time around will be very responsive to citizen initiatives and their input.

I only have four people willing to help me but I think that group will grow. If we are then on the door steps of Pickerington voters we can also inject the City Schools issue. By late fall we should be in a position of knowing the pulse of the voters not my neighborhood cronies or your school zealots.


By Broke