Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

We have a board of education that seems to think homeowners eat paper and extricate money. They also seem to have a very short memory. Didn't we, the voting public, approve $70+ Million dollars to construct a campus-style school facility? Didn't we also pass an operating levy to ensure the money was there to open them up? Both of the aforementioned approvals by a very narrow margin mind you.

Now, we are told, the money from the previously approved operating levy is not enough and we're going to have to pass the 7.5 mill levy or PLSD won't have the cash to open up the $70+ Million dollar complex. Isn't that right Larry Sigman? Hmmm.

To add insult to injury and to hamstring the voting public, the school board votes to combine the 7.5 mil operating levy with a $27M bond issue to build two very expensive elementary schools. Sounds like blackmail to me and I am not buying it! I (AND MY VOTING FRIENDS) AM NOT BUYING IT !!!

Why should I send my hard earned money to Joyce Bushman? She's just going to TIF it away and cash in on more land options! NO WAY SCHOOL BOARD - IT AIN''T HAPPENING !!! Joyce ain?’t getting?’ rich on my dime!!!

Thanks, Dr. Rigleman, for sticking to your guns. You're right, it's too much. Especially when we were made promises that the board WILL open the new schools with the operating levy we passed with the $70M bond levy. Let us first see if you can do that before we start writing more blank checks to the board! Mr. Wright of city council may very well get to check his ''YOUTH HARDSHIP?” theory.

If our republican leaders in the legislature don't want to pay to educate Ohio's children, then why should homeowners? The courts have already decided the current method of funding schools is lopsided and unfair to homeowners. The burden on homeowners is too great and the burden on business it too little. We've got communities fighting over who's going to give ''MEGA - Corporation'' the biggest tax abatement! We've got a culture of Ohio business that isn't paying their fair share because they contribute the most to this party or that party!

If you noticed the August 13th Columbus Dispatch Metro section was littered with articles about school districts across central Ohio begging homeowners for more money. We are not the Ohio school district piggy bank! While we're falling over each other at the legislature to give ''MEGA-Corporation'' her tax break, we are breaking our own backs and banks trying to pay to educate Ohio's children!!!

Meanwhile, Pickerington has littered this community with apartments, condos and cookie
cutter homes on 8,500 sq. ft. lots that cover acre after acre. Larry Metzger, from Columbus Board of Realtors, pranced in front of Bushman and the ''frothing-at-the-mouth for more homes'' Pickerington city council and said the Pickerington mix of multi-family housing and planned unit development (i.e., condos, apartments
and cookie cutter homes) encourages commercial, industrial and retail development. I don't think Larry's opinion means squat! Larry salary is tied to how many homes Pickerington can make available to Larry to sell and make a profit on. Plus Larry's logic doesn't add up! Where's the commercial? Where's the industrial? NOWHERE!!!
There isn't any!!! These problems are bigger than we here in Pickerington can solve in the immediate future. In any case, it's just better to vote no and play the ''wait-and-see'' approach.

Just vote ''NO!''

JUST VOTE ''NO!''

AMEN

TO BAD YOU DIDNT SIGN YOUR NAME, AT THIS POINT I AGREE WITH YOU 100%. ITS TIME TO CLOSE OUR WALLETS AND WAIT AND SEE. WE NEED TO PROMOTE THIS TO THE CITIZENS, IF ALL THESE NEW TAXES ARE VOTED IN AND WHEN THE NEW SCHOOL TAXES TAKE FULL EFFECT IN SEVERAL YEARS OUR TAXES WILL NEARLY DOUBLE. I ALSO LOVE THE WAY THE PAPER USES THE 100K HOMES WHEN THEY TELL YOU HOW MUCH YOUR TAXES WILL GO UP, I DONT KNOW OF HARDLY ANY PROPERTY THAT GOES FOR 100K ANYMORE IN PICKERINGTON. I ALSO WILL NOT VOTE FOR ANYMORE TAX INCREASES. IT MIGHT BE POLITICALLY INCORRECT TO SAY SO OUT LOUD BUT IM FED UP. NOT UNTILL THE COUNCIL SLOWS DOWN DEVELOPMENTS OR THEY GET VOTED OUT OF OFFICE (WHICH I HOPE THEY WILL BE-BUT WE NEED TO GET SOME STRONG CANDIDATES OUT THERE NOW) WILL I VOTE ON ANYMORE NEW TAXES!!!! I AGREE VOTE NO!!!!!!
THANK YOU
BRUCE ROOKSTOOL

Litter?

Dear Anonymous,

I agree with most of what you've brought up but definitely don't agree with your approach. You accuse city council of 'frothing at the mouth' when your very post exhibits many of the same qualities. You don't seem to understand that these ''cookie-cutter'' homes, apartments, and condos you refer to also contain many hard working men and women who also VOTE. I'm sure our little shanty on our ~12,000 sq ft lot doesn't meet with your approval for grandiose Pickerington. However, my wife and I have paid property taxes for 12 years and income taxes into the school district for over 14 years WITHOUT having any children in the school system AND WE VOTE in every election possible. So are you courting our vote by saying our house is ?“littering?” your wonderful Pickerington or driving us away from your position? Notes posted in haste exhibiting anger and frustration do little to convince others of your position now matter how true the underlying statements may be. I have done the same at times and often come to regret what I say.

I do however find it troubling that my oldest is approaching the age to enter 'the system' and I'm actually considering voting NO on a school issue for the first time in my life. The reason I am leaning towards NO is based on much of the information I've received from PATA, the empty guarantee's I've heard from our school board and my interactions with city council and the mayor and the lack of interest in our schools they seem to exhibit. I don't want to punish my children, or others, though for the lack of vision and direction shown by our elected officials, township and city, so that is why I'm waffling on the levy.

I understand the frustration of your message, I've felt it many times myself. However, instead of alienating us cookie-cutter homeowners and those poor souls who live in a condo or an apartment why not reach out to us and try to work together to make change happen for the positive? Let's discuss the issues, invite our friends and neighbors to this site and try and make Pickerington a better place. Without informed members of the community and all of us working together for change we are going to continue in the same direction we've been heading and that light at the end of the tunnel isn't sunshine but a train coming our way fast.

P.S. My wife and I both grew up on large lots in the country and we actually prefer living in a development but that is another story for another time.