Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

On the subject of a merger. I know that in the past the township trustees have tried to sell this as a third rail and they have ran a very biased poll trying to confirm in everyone?’s mind that the township voters don?’t want to merge with the city. Anyone bringing up the subject is attacked by said trustees.

Yet these same trustees are trying to create new economy opportunities and they simply can?’t under the township form of government. What do they need? It is income tax and they only want to tax the commercial properties. To create a JEDD they must give up any authority over that area and give their authority to the JEDD board.

Clearly if the city and the township were to merge it would require that everyone decide on a way to generate revenue. I think the best way would be to rely partly on property taxes and partly on income tax. Being a city it would need to provide police protection and other services that many in the township don?’t have and are not required to have now.

The big stumbling block would be are the citizens in the township in need of additional services and at what point will it be become an issue for them. One point that has been on many minds most recently has been either the city or the township governments making decisions that negatively affect the other. I know there is a lot of show boating from both government?’s officials about ?“cooperation?” and the need to work together and they then turn around and stick to the other people the first chance they get.

Trustee Dunlap has a long history of vindictive moves against the city because he was fired from there a couple of times. If anyone would make the move to start a merger movement Dunlap would be the first this group would need to address.

The citizens of the city and the township have different views of what would happen if a merger were to occur. Most concerns center around taxes and city debt. Clearly some of these views are correct and some are not rooted in reality. In either case these fears and views would need to be addressed. I am sure that for the vast majority a system could be worked out that they didn?’t pay additional taxes on their incomes.

One issue that many don?’t know about including the trustees is the lack of services that come up to the Pickerington/Violet Twp areas from the county tax dollars. I think in the case of the township they get very little of the county road money if it were actually distributed proportionally. I am also wondering about other services that seem to be cornered by the City of Lancaster. I think the county commissioners fail to look much beyond the Lancaster city limits. I think a merger would allow this area to have a seat at the dinner table along with Lancaster and the commissioners.

I know most of the elected people are fearful of raising this merger issue. I know I would like to hear people?’s opinion and not ?“what most people think?”. In other words, why do you oppose or favor a merger based on your own situation not what you think others in the community might say?

Heck NO!!!

Being a Township resident I enjoy the following for a low cost

a. roads are plowed and salted including subdivision streets and cul de sacs.

b. these roads are done usually before drive time to work or school.

c. the county and state plow major connector roads and sr 204 once again they do a good job getting this done and providing a safe passage given most conditions.

d. the roads are kept in decent repair by the township county and state. all one need to do is drive to the columbus border say on tussing road and see the difference, then you can drive to the licking county border drive in licking county a bit then hit the Pataskala city limits and see the difference. Pataskala roads do not get salted or plowed regularly nor do they get paved or repaired except in the most dire circumstances. All this maintenance stopped when they merged and the county stopped maintaining hundreds of miles of roads in Pataskala. Well that has been nearly ten years now and nothing has been done, why? they are broke!

They have no income tax and rely on property taxes. it is a complete failure. There police force is down to bare bones and the crime is increasing and the meth lab people and associated rif raf have found a home in rural pataskala.


Item two. Why as a township resident would I want to pay off Pickerington debt? I get my sewer and water from Fairfield county, pay fairly to support that system. My township government does not have to maintain hundreds of miles of roads in the township, those are done by the county or state using the tax dollars I pay to them, I get something back from the tax dollars I pay to the county state and feds directly, and they do a fine job maintaining the infrastructure they have. I do not have to have duplicity of services, police cars from the city and the sheriff passing each other on the streets etc. My neighborhood is safe patrolled by the sheriff, people volunteer to help each other in times of emergency and otherwise, my kids shovel the elderly neighbors driveways in the winter for free just to do a good turn, there are 6 homes with driveways on one acre lots, it is not small task!
continued

By closet philosopher

Heck NO!!! continued

The tax base of the county is so huge, it can bond projects far cheaper than the city does etc I could go on and on.

Why would I want to pay more for less? Yes it would be less because right now Pickerington you cannot pave or repair your roads because of budget problems... you had to cut back on plowing and salting to get through the winter and everyone noticed! Why would adding hundreds of miles of roads to your responsibility help your budget?
Even with the increased revenue, it is a hole bigger than you can imagine, just drive to Pataskala and see.

It comes down to this, the people in the township will not vote to pay more for possibly less service and paying your debt should be your responsibility.

Apparently we are willing to settle for less on the nice to have side, like a nice recreation center and parks etc, we do not want to pay for them. if we did we would support a ballot issue for a joint recreation district and when the economy improves, we may do that but we do not want all of your other baggage through a merger.

You need us to shop in Pickerington to support your retail, go to the doctor in town so you can tax his high salary so we are not complete freeloaders... and we are also not stupid. We have not heard a compelling reason from you as to why it is in OUR advantage to merge, It appears to only be in your favor!


By closet philosopher

Call me an optimist

The lack of support to entertain a logical discussion of a business proposal by hampering such a discussion with biased polls is reprehensible. Yet another thread should be started regarding candidates for Trustee.

It is quite apparent that the township is in competition rather than cooperation with the city in every aspect except for gathering votes and collecting inside millage (see, I am not a crank. I did my homework with the auditor?’s office). This competition is historic. All that can change it is to change the majority of their board.

I was at a meeting the other day and trustee Myers talked about their Port Authority. WHAT PORT AUTHORITY?? Why in the heck is it not the Pickerington/Violet Port Authority?? Simple. They want our money and votes but nothing else unless it is free to them. Do you think that the township will give up any power to a JEDD board? That is laughable. What Canal and Pickerington failed to grasp in voting for this is that Violet will seed the board. Two or three of their own have controlling interest in much of the land in the JEDD area. While it might not be legal for them to personally sit on a JEDD board if they petition to enter it, they certainly can post their agents there.

You?’re right on target with the generation of revenue statement. We would need a way to support ourselves. We all have to pay for services and what we consume. If you do the math, the potential exists to remain at 1%. Estimate the additional income from township residents and the increase outpaces the increased cost of the level of services required. Well, maybe best guess is a better qualifier than estimate. We have to deal with water and sewer issues that the costs and EPA regulations escape me.

I read back through these postings and at one time people were talking about a merger they outlined the necessity for a merger commission and that the process could take as long as 10 years. What I wonder is if that information might now be outdated. Given the paradigm shift in State affairs since those postings were written, perhaps someone approaching our State elected officials to guide us through a merger process in the hopes that others in the State would see the wisdom and the fact that townships are no longer needed, the merger process could be redefined.

The history of Trustee Dunlap and his previous employment adventures in the city predate me but again, the nuances of how he presents himself definitely shows his contempt for the city. He needs to retire and focus on developing the property he controls in the JEDD area. Go on, go get rich and leave the rest of us alone.

The fear of someone inheriting city debt is a realistic fear. So it would take some creative thinking and planning on mitigation. Municipal debt is a fact of life unless you are Dublin. But I think that the benefits outweigh the negatives.

I wonder the right steps to take. Is the first step to actually have real merger talks to form a commission? And whose action is that? Citizen, government or?…? Funding would have to be established because I would guess that at the very least the commission would have to hire a professional and impartial polling company to see if the geographic area of Violet township carries 50.1% interest in proceeding.

Let?’s keep this thread alive. Let?’s stop looking back at actions, behavior and statements of the likes of the current trustees as we can never move forward as a community with these people in place. Let?’s share some real ideas and positive thoughts on if this is a fight worth fighting.

Regards,
KK




By Kathy K