Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

You got to love Mike Sabatino. NO BIAS NO BULL.

Pickerington Times-Sun > News

After debate, council likely to keep city tax division in place

By NICHOLAS A. LA TORRE

Published: Monday, November 24, 2008 3:12 PM EST


Several members of the city of Pickerington's tax department breathed sighs of relief after council members' votes reflected the unlikeliness they will outsource the jobs of the department.

An ordinance on the committee's agenda would have handed tax duties to the Regional Income Tax Agency to enforce the city of Pickerington's income tax ordinances instead of the city's own tax department.

Even though the ordinance moves on to City council from the Finance Committee after it's regular Nov. 19 meeting, council members said it's likely the ordinance won't get approved on its first reading.

The Finance Committee moved to send the ordinance to council, but did not recommend its passage.

Pickerington is in a unique position of having all of its City Council members serving on the Finance Committee.

If the committee votes 4-3 against recommending passage of an ordinance to council, they've essentially voted for its failure, members said.

''It's likely it will die (in council),'' said Councilman Keith Smith.

He and other members spent a large portion of the three-hour meeting debating and sometimes bickering about the ordinance.

''I've dealt with a number of third-party administrators on a number of things,'' said Councilman Brian Wisniewski. ''I have nothing, but respect and admiration for our tax department.

''I will practically guarantee if you go with RITA, you will not get the level of satisfaction we get with our tax department,'' Wisniewski said.

Members said going with RITA could cause a savings of anywhere from $61,000 to $75,000.

Also, an unknown amount of revenue could be generated in seeking out delinquent tax dollars.

RITA has the ability to tap into the Internal Revenue Service's database and find unpaid tax obligations -- an ability the city tax department does not possess.

Councilman Michael Sabatino used the discussion as an opportunity to seek out an ''I told you so'' from council members.

''We heard weeks ago if the (proposed income tax increase) doesn't pass, the sky is falling,'' Sabatino said. ''Well, the tax didn't pass.

''Does that mean we really didn't need the income tax increase then?'' Sabatino asked.

City Manager Tim Hansley said he didn't appreciate Sabatino using the opportunity to say the city didn't need an income tax increase.

''We spent several hours last Wednesday night (Nov. 12) cutting services,'' Hansley said. ''I'm offended by that cause that means you're not listening to anything staff has said about how dire the budget is.''

Sabatino voted against putting any income tax increase on the Nov. 4 General Election ballot during deliberations with council. His only fellow nay-sayer was Councilman Brian Sauer.

They seemed to have found an ally on the issue in Councilman Jeff Fix.

''The $57,000 in savings, whether real or imagined, isn't going to break our budget in (20)09,'' Fix said. ''The question shouldn't be about money.

''It should be about efficiency -- their ability to tap into the IRS database to collect taxes we didn't know exists,'' Fix added.

Council members are expected to have their first reading on the ordinance during their regular meeting Dec. 2.

why not

''Members said going with RITA could cause a savings of anywhere from $61,000 to $75,000.

Also, an unknown amount of revenue could be generated in seeking out delinquent tax dollars.

RITA has the ability to tap into the Internal Revenue Service's database and find unpaid tax obligations -- an ability the city tax department does not possess. ''

why wouldn't the city do this?

also, why wouldn't the school district tag along.

i've known a number of people that live in the apartments throughout the city that have purposely avoided the income taxes for both the city and the school district.

wouldn't this get their money?

Penny wise/dollar foolish

When I read the minutes of the meetings where this was discussed the same thing came into my mind that must have in some of council's.

These are POTENTIAL savings. The only was to get true figures is to go with this outsourcing agency and hope in a few years that we see the savings. Why wouldn't staff be given certain goals to meet and give them a chance to save some money for the city? I know that when I moved here 5 years ago, I and my employer had no clue as to what I was supposed to pay or they were supposed to withhold to the city and what I was supposed to pay to the school. I went to the city tax department and they explained it to me and they made it so easy to understand that I asked them if I could have our payroll department contact them. they said yes, payroll did and we have never had a problem with Pickerington taxes again.

Also listening to two other sources of information:

1. In the meeting minutes in the mayor report section it appears that mayor's court has really stepped up the prosecution of tax evaders and deadbeats and collections are going way up.

2. An associate who went to mayor's court to pay a speeding ticket said there were probably 30 tax cases being prosecuted that night while he was sitting there.

Isn't access to the IRS information sources simply a subscription fee? So we could subscribe and offer the same service?



So do we really need to outsource or just take a closer look into better business practices in house?

Having been on both sides of outsourcing, I'll take keeping it in house. I would much rather have a person to talk to face to face than some faceless telephone tree or website.

MYTH - Apts & Property Tax

Property tax is a function of rent that every renter pays. While the specific renter does NOT pay property taxes the owner of the apartment building pays it for all of its units & those $'s are a piece of the rent the tennent pays.

There is no free lunch.

Call the County Auditor if you really don't believe this - they will confirm.