If you can't pay move
Dear Been there, Done that
First you should know that according to the Auditor's web site Violet Township now collects 1.7 mill for their road and bridge levy.
So if the property you speak about is vacant land and it is also zoned at agriculture valuation then they currently pay the township near zero in property tax. Terry Dunlap has 17 acres in this category and he pays less than $100 per year in property tax.
So if over night they annex into Pickerington and accept utilities provided by the Pickerington utilities users then that property could sky rocket in value from near zero in property taxes to thousand. Based on that new assessed value Pickerington will be 1.7 mill to the township. Here we have the township getting rewards because they were able to support and get elected a lap dog who they can stroke his ego and get him to bark anyway they please. If this new property increases in value to over say $5 Million then the township gets over $3,000 of your tax monies.
Now if there is payroll of say $1.5 million then the income taxes collected of $15 thousand would be shared 50/50. So every year the city tax payers would send to the township a check for ''SERVICE'' payments wink wink and that check would be for over $10 thousand.
The question is why? They also get added value to the levy and they get added value to the .6 mill inside levy. Which adds another direct tax payment of $1,155 for the administrative levy and $13,475 for the fire current levy.
The question is WHY???
What did the trustees do to earn this windfall?
Did the unincorporated areas of the township actually put into thing into infrastructure like water sewer roads and other facilities to actually make these land improvement possible? The answer is none to very little.
So basically the city walks away with nothing after they in most cases have provided the bulk of the infrastructure needs. The facts now are the city tax payers must subsidize the debt service incurred in providing these infrastructures and the township resident get a huge windfall Scott free. The city government then hears how damn high your debt is and I wouldn't want to merge because I wouldn't want to take on your huge debt. What a crock. Yet if you could lend us your income taxes in the form of a JEDD we have even more ways to stick it to you. I also wouldn't want to merge because of those income taxes you all pay.
The reasons those that opposed this are not getting their word out is because our township Mayor is allowing a rookie councilman to circumvent the process and to do the negotiating and ignore the rules on council.
The Mayor of the Township and Trustee Fix are moving forward because back July they convinced three other members of council to go along to get along. It will see the price those that oppose this agreement pay and how their representation will be totally controlled by the Mayor of the Township and Trustee Fix in a little over two weeks at re-org.
The citizens of the City better damn well wake up and soon. We got members of the Pickerington City council that have no idea what the agreement says or any of the ramifications to the city tax payers. Yet blindly support Jeff Fix to get a good committee assignment in two weeks.
