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After reading the most recent edition of the P.A.T.A. Newsletter, I went back into the discussion archives and found this posting. Pickerington??™s debt will go to about $36 million if the sewer expansion is approved. Columbus officials were reamed for having debt of about $50 million. The credit-card lady is about to jack-up Pickerington??™s debt (increase her credit line) one more time before she high-tails it out of town. Let??™s not forget the city??™s legal council, Robert Mapes. He??™s about to get his contract renewed and that will require the city pay him even if the new council majority decides to terminate his contract. You see, the pro-growth officials are pillaging the city coffers because they believe there??™s a distinct possibility that the voters won??™t be, as Lee Gray put it, ??œDUMB??? and they may decide to throw the pro-growth bums out! Even so, city residents will be in debt way over their heads. The city is and will be financially unable to contribute any funds to attract commercial businesses, including commercial businesses near SR33. Remember, this posting was when the city was $11 million in debt. It will soon be over 3 times that much. Can you afford to continue down the path that Lou Postage (mayor), Chris Smith (zoning board), and Joyce Bushman (credit card lady) have led you? Can you afford to grow any larger? And people are wondering why our schools are in a financial crisis. Adding 550+ kids to the district per year??¦ plus diverting millions of dollars from the districts budget to pay for red lights and curbs (T.I.F.??™s) will put any school district in ??œfiscal watch???. .
Read on??¦
''fibberdy-jib''... Is it Just Me?
10-5-2001
Joyce Bushman, ah-hem, excuse me; Pickerington City Manager Joyce Bushman is like a shop-oholic on her last dime of credit. She??™s nearly overdrawn and like a true credit card addicted, she is scrambling for money every way she can, including taking money from all of Pickerington Local School District??™s (PLSD??™s) taxpaying citizens (yes, that means you too Violet Township residents). The money-trail, or rather, ??œcredit-trail???, is not difficult to follow.
Instead of a retail businesses coming into the city of Pickerington, paying to make infrastructure improvements and then setting up his or her retail shop, Pickerington pays for the improvements. These infrastructure improvements run into the millions of dollars!
You may ask, ??œIf Pickerington??™s city manager is in a financial pinch, how can she afford to do that????
Answer: She doesn??™t; our schools pay for all of that instead.
Once a piece of property is developed, the value of that property increases as well as the taxes assessed on that property. That translates to more money for the city and more money for the schools.
Here??™s where our schools get short-changed. Instead of having the retail stores pay for the necessary improvements to the property, the city gets a loan and does it for them. Free lights, curbs, gutters, etc. for developers paid for with a city loan.
You may ask, ''How do they get a loan, if they are financially strapped?''
Answer: They get it by diverting the school??™s portion of the increased tax revenue that would have went to the schools had the retail owner paid for the improvements. So the money that PLSD should be getting because of the increased property value due to the improvements is diverted to pay on the City of Pickerington??™s loan. All the legal speak you hear and read about in the city council meeting minutes such as, ??œthe issuance of bonds??? etc. is ??œfibberdy-jib??? for??¦ ??œGetting a loan!???
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2 years ago (con't)...
Cont??™d??¦
Now here??™s the snow job. It may be a little difficult to follow, but please try (It seems many city residents get confused in the details and lose interest, throwing down the local newspaper and choosing the remote control instead): Pickerington city council cooked up a formula they proclaim rebates the schools for the lost revenue. There??™s only one problem: the math does not add up. If the city were like the majority of cities in the state of Ohio, the retail owner would have made the improvements. Historically, retail stores flourish in residential areas such as Pickerington??™s because of the huge market. The more residents within a given area, the more business retail owners can expect.
The formula short changes the schools millions of dollars over the life of the loan as PLSD tries to recoup the costs associated with making up these funds??¦ and beat inflation. That $200,000.00 in reimbursements is costing PLSD millions of dollars in the long run, yet our school board majority says nothing. Actually, one member of the majority even praised the city for their effort. This goes to show you how these complex issues are often too much for our own school board members to fully understand.
10-5-2001
You may ask, ??œIf the retail store owner is more than willing to pay for the infrastructure improvements to accommodate their business, why give them a break? Why does the city pay for it????
Answer: Do you remember the credit card lady who needed money fast? Well, what this does is get money into the city coffers immediately. The city gets a loan for the improvements and the school pays the loan payments. No charge to the city??™s budget. Raising taxes would simply take too long and alert too many residents to her doings.
Meanwhile, the city gets to keep their share of the property tax revenue and, as an added bonus, they get the new income tax receipts from the workers who operate the retail stores. This grand scheme or shell game is called ??œTax Increment Financing??? or T.I.F.??™s, which are usually reserved for multi-million dollar businesses ??“ not small retail businesses, condominiums and strip malls!
I??™m sure you??™ve all heard about T.I.F.??™s and now I sincerely hope that you now know we are ALL paying for the city??™s ineptitude. The short on the long is the shop-oholic credit card fiend has just increased her credit line. Anyone who??™s been duped by an increased credit line knows that eventually, the bill must be paid. Unfortunately for city residents, when the bill does become due, the shop-oholic can simply change jobs and move on, leaving the residents holding the bill. By then the damage is done. Taxes and fees will go up and frustration will also.
I have sat repeatedly on SR256 during the morning rush hour wondering, ??œHow many residents feel the way I do about all of this? Do we really believe that this growth is sustainable? Can we really stand another 1,700 homes and 3,400 cars????
I continue to wonder, ??œ...or is it just me????
-By u.v.t.r
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No one immune
Understand also, that the amount of collective ''borrowing power'' for all government entities in Fairfield County is finite. The amount of money that the City of Pickerington has in the form of loans PREVENTS any other government entitiy in the county from getting loans for their individual projects or emergencies. The city has basically used up the bulk of the ''credit'' allocated for the entire county. If my sewer system in my town collapses, we are s.o.l. if we have to go out and borrow, as the credit is all used up. The actions of your council have negatively impacted what even other municipalities can do for their citizenry. Getting them out is a double edged sword for we that are in neighboring communities. Leave the gang in, they stay there and rape and pillage your community for awile more...vote em out, they head to the next town. Hopefully, we are ready for them as many of us LEFT your community, and can probably identify them by smell now.
By Messenger for others
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