Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

Shell Game

I have, myself, provided answers to several of those questions at City Council meetings and on this discussion board. When I do, however, the BIA and the Mayor tend to change their assumptions.

Thus we have seen proposed a 3,000-acre community authority, a 4,500-home community authority, a 3,000-home community authority, and now a 3,800-home community authority.

For several weeks, our City Manager herself told us that each house in the Community Authority would hold, on average, 1.5 children. I have some confidence in this number, since the City Manager would not have quoted a number so contrary to the BIA's interests without good reason. Then, however, we were told that the proper number was 0.8 kids per house, and then 0.7 kids per house.

We have been told that the community authority would remain in place only for 20 years, then for 30 years, and now for 40 years. In my initial analysis, I assumed an average home price of $180,000, which I considered high. Then we were told that the average home price would be $200,000. And now we are being told that it would be $225,000.

We were told that a 6-mill levy on residents of this community authority, over a 20-year period, would produce enough revenue to finance $35 million of building projects for the PLSD. When I pointed out the obvious -- that you could not finance $35 million of building projects without paying an even larger amount of interest -- we were told that the community authority would raise $74 million. If you do the calculations yourself, however, you will find that 6 mills will not even raise $35 million over 20 years in a 3,000-home community authority.

Have any of you ever seen a real shell game? If you have watched the Community Authority Proposal closely, you have. We have had enough of this flim flam.

The Community Authority Proposal is a transparent, BIA-inspired fraud, designed to block this community's efforts to manage growth. But we do not have to be fooled. Let's support Ted Hackworth's and Bruce Rookstool's proposals. We're not a bunch of rubes who can be taken in by cheap carnival games.

Questions

Sara,

You are asking us to answer questions that the Mayor and the BIA should answer. As Bruce stated above their figures are jumping all over the place just to cover their argument and in the end they will have continued to dump houses on us until they kill the school system.

Please read Lisa Ross and Bruce Rigelman's comments and they know more than most about these issues. I generally agree with what they say. To fix the city we need to find new council persons that will have an open mind and will work for the good of the citizens. Doesn't it seem odd to you that the Mayor who represnts us is talking to the BIA instead of the citizens of this city? Shouldn't we be determining our future? Shouldn't we be telling the BIA what we will accept or not accept? Shouldn't we determine our own tax burdens not the BIA?

Let me remind you that we had a tea party a few years back on taxation without representation. I feel another tea party coming. Clearly Lou Postage is not represnting the citizens.

AGREEDED!

Bruce and Ted are correct..this is yet another
BIA ploy.It is well past the time to clean house!

Questions are TO BIA, not you/us

Sorry if my post was confusing. I listed the questions I still have, combined with those from others on the website. These are the questions I will work to get answers to - FROM the Mayor, BIA, etc.

You mention Bruce's comment about ''their figures are jumping all over the place just to cover their argument''. Numbers are not firm yet because no final deal or contract has been written up. That is what the independent entity is supposed to help us with - determining the real impact of the proposed building, so we can determine as a community, what we think is appropriate and acceptable. It is simply too early to be definite at this point.

You asked: ''Doesn't it seem odd to you that the Mayor who represnts us is talking to the BIA instead of the citizens of this city?'' I can't answer for him, but I can state that the community authority is a document / agreement proposed by the land owners (here, the developers). It is not a ''deal'' between the City and builders. Only between builders. Mr. Postage's role, as I understand it, is more of a facilitator - he has been helping to pressure the BIA to agree to even put together the C.A.

If you read the ordinance passed last week, you'll notice that the actual C.A. must be posted on the City's website for (I think) 60 days, during which there will be at least 2 public hearings. Also, once we have more information back on actual impact, and the questions I listed, we will be in a better position, as a community, to say what we think the C.A. ought to look like.