Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

I did and you are still wrong!

Mark,

Have you been out in the sun today? Your deductive reasoning is failing you. First you say that Beachwood pays $5,228 to the schools from residential property. You also say that Pickerington only pays $2,790 to the schools from its residential property. What does those two figures have to do with the price of eggs in Boston? NOTHING!

Mark you pay real estate taxes on both residential and commercial properties. So if Pickerington only had residential properties within the school district and as a group we all paid $2,790 per student. I also believe our school currently has about 8000 plus students. What happens is we reduce the student population by 4000 and the number of homes paying real estate taxes remained the same. We would be paying more ($5,580) than Beachwood from the residential part of the tax bill now wouldn?’t we Mr. Uher? So how in the world can you reach your conclusion without knowing how many tax paying homes there are in the district or even the residential property valuation prior to reaching that conclusion. The article did state that they had 1,688 students.


SO MARK YOUR CONCLUSIONS ARE VERY WRONG!!!

Now that ratio is probably do to the fact that Beachwood has been able to control its residential growth rates to a reasonable rate. That means folks moved in and raised their children and stayed in their empty nester homes. You say they have a LOWER medium household income and then try to reach the conclusion that they are paying outrageous school Real Estate taxes. I doubt that the Beachwood School district is paying any more that Pickerington school district tax payers is per household.

NEW HOMES ATTRACT YOUNG FAMILES!

Have you got that down in your memory bank yet Mr. Uher? You have pointed out another reason why this uncontrolled residential growth is killing this school district. Here again the city of Pickerington has been issuing building permits at 9% growth rate the last two years. The Township has been below 4%. I am almost afraid to ask what the current year will bring. I believe the above figures will be much higher in both the township and the city.


AT WHAT POINT DO WE GET THROUGHT TO YOU MR. UHER ABOUT RESIDENTIAL GROWTH?

It is well beyond the time of trying to ask for lower density. We must stop this building dead in its tracts. If you want more money for the school children then your time will be much better spent asking these local governments to slow the residential growth down. Water and Sewer plants have been the catalyst for home building. So get ready for about another 5,000 homes and we will see the above figures per student go even lower and approach the state?’s safety net of $4,800.


By Joe Sixpack

You're still telling fibs Mark?

Mark Uher

Below is a cut and paste of Beachwood City AAA bond rating. It looks nothing like the City of Pickerington. Beachwood only has a 4 mill levy for city services. Pickerington has 10 mills. Since Beachwood is a city school system all the facts that relate the City of Beachwood also relate to the very taxpayers that support the schools. You know you are not in Pickerington when you read Beachwood?’s profile. Mark it has taken Beachwood over 40 years to double their population. It currently is only 12,000 It was over 6,000 in 1960. They have nearly 4500 residential living units and yes they pay less per household that the households in the PLSD.


The ''AAA'' rating is awarded to communities that have demonstrated the highest-level performance in four basic categories:
1. Management and administration of government resources
2. Effective debt management with moderate to low levels
3. A vibrant and diverse local economy
4. Strong finances
In Ohio, there are only two other communities that have an ''AAA'' rating from Fitch Investors Service, and there are less than 25 in the entire United States.
Fitch noted that the factors that contributed to Beachwood receiving the ''AAA'' rating were:
?• The expanding tax base
?• High personal wealth levels Check this out Mark
?• Consistently strong financial performance Check this out also.
?• Superior financial flexibility
?• Low debt burden How about this Mark.
Fitch further noted that the City of Beachwood has achieved strong economic growth through:
?• Significant commercial and retail development
?• Quality schools
?• Low property tax burden How about Houses
Other strengths associated with Beachwood's exceptional rating include:
?• Conservative five year forecast projects modest budgetary growth
?• City can use current resources to pay for most capital needs
?• City will continue to rapidly pay down it's debt; retire 78% of debt within 10 years (50 % is considered average)
?• Good relations between management and employees should continue and maintain balanced budget in future
?• Plan to maintain year end balance of 50% of General Fund revenues
In the summer of 2001, the City of Beachwood will send to the residents the City's first Community Financial Report. This report will present the financial statements of the City in a user-friendly format. The City looks forward to sharing this information with the community.

Beachwood Recreation Sports Weather Line
Is there a game today? Call 216-595-5496




By Joe Sixpack

Do You Have a Bad Hangover, Joe?

Dear Joe Sixpack:

Wow. You better take a nap before you have a heart attack. You must have one bad hangover.

In your rage, you totally missed the point. Beachwood citizens earn less and pay more per student than we do. Beachwood spends $13,071 per pupil and we spend $3,171. Is that so hard to understand? Their class sizes are 11.1 and our are 20.1. Are my figures wrong here? For a high school of about 500, Beachwood has 14 advanced placement courses ... our high school have about 2200 and we have 7 courses. Do you know what an advanced placement course is Joe?

Stop getting so worked up and accept the fact that we don't support our schools as we should. We are below the state average in terms of per pupil expenditures. For the medium household income in our community, it is embarrassing our per pupil expenditure. And, yes, the Township and the City could do much better in terms of commercial development ... do we really need more storage units in Violet Township?

Take a nap, Joe. You'll feel better!

Hmmmmm

Growing up in the sticks I ain't taken none them thar fancy high-schooler math classes but using the approximations I've seen from the banter going back and forth and from the Pickerington web site.

($13,071 per student X 1668 students) / 12,000 residents = $1816 per resident in Beechwood.

($3,171 per student X 8000 students) / 10,000 residents = $2536 per resident in Pickerington.

This also does not take into account the far greater burden of monies supplied by businesses in Beechwood.

I know I'm not taking into account the families outside the city boundaries but they aren't taken into account for Beechwood either. So what else am I missing? Because on the surface it appears we are more generous here in Pickerington.

- Brian