Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

Where we at now?

Sept 25, 2002
Since many of our elected officials read this site, on a regular basis, it is a very good communication tool to let them know just how we feel, without the insults that come from appearing before the Pickerington City Council. No matter how we try to spin the issue the largest single tax emergency facing this community is the Pickerington Local School District's operating levy this November. Folks it won?’t go away. It won?’t go away for years. The building of new schools is only a minor part of the expenses. Once the buildings are completed we then must get into the operating expenses of those new schools. It will mean a whole new set of administrators and maintenance staff. It means more school bus drivers and so on. The school is telling us that they can only predict this operating levy in November for the next TWO YEARS. In all of the rhetoric coming from all sides here we still face that basic problem of our REAL ESTATE tax base. We still have a declining real estate tax evaluation per student which puts us at a disadvantage when trying to fund money to ours schools. At one time we had farm land all over this school district. That land is slowly being replaced with only homes. If those homes were in the $500,000 range then we just might keep abreast of the property valuation formula. The fact we all must face is that these homes coming into the City of Pickerington are basically starter homes in the $150,000 range. If these news homes were occupied by just seniors or even empty nesters then we might have a chance to keep up with property valuation per student; they aren?’t. The property valuation could be helped with strong commercial growth. However; our city government has embarked on a policy path of giving TIF?’s to every one that brings a business into Pickerington. Unfortunately any NEW taxes that the school district might have enjoyed are being spent on building roads and other infrastructure to keep pace with the growing population of the area. In addition to the growing problem with our roads and traffic control we find additional needs of sewer and water capacity. Here again the city embraces a policy of turning the water and sewer plants into profit centers and competes with the surrounding government entities for the customer market for these services, resulting in wasted tax dollars. They are currently in a legal battle to annex 672 acres from the township so they can expand the utilities markets they think will deliver them big bucks. To service these NEW areas the city will need to breech current agreements with Canal Winchester and the County and spend millions of dollars to expand these utilities plants that will place a tremendous debt load onto the city users of these systems. It is my belief that to resolve the problems facing this community and this school district we must all sit down and forge an agreement within our school district to control residential growth, increase commercial growth, and develop an economic tax base that each year increases the property VALUATION PER STUDENT in our school system. This should be our tool to measure our success.
-By Ted Hackworth


By Ground Hog Day all over again

Have things changed in 3 years?

Rarely do you find where a politician is elected and actually carries out what he promised three years earlier.

Here is a posting dated September 25, 2002.

Has Hackworth and the majority of council moved in a direction to complete those visions of 2002?

I believe the 672 acres annexation legal battles are over.

I believe as a result of the above law suit settlement with the township the city is working for a JEDD agreement with the township.

Before the Pickerington P & Z committee is residential design standards ordinance. This will add probably $8 to $10 thousand dollars to each new home in the future.

I believe I read where the city is about to complete a binding 208 plan with the county and Canal Winchester. This will result in protected sewer districts and eliminate these sewer wars.

The current council in 2004 killed the previous sewer plant expansion and with it the debt and the pressure to sell sewer taps to make that debt service.

I read where the city has passed a debt policy ordinance and contained in that debt policy was a new TIF?’ policy. In the future the developer will need to guarantee the TIF bond with either a Credit Letter or they must buy the bond. The City will no longer take the development risk for the developer.

Adding to the costs to these residential builders is a new impact fee ordinance do out of council very soon. That will add another $3,500 to the new home cost and instead of a TIF to fund the city?’s infrastructure needs a portion of those costs will be put back on new development.

I am aware that the city is about to present a new growth management plan. I guess none of us know what that will entail but however the new council has moved steadily in a direction to fulfill it promises.

Every one of the above steps moves the school district in a direction of a better ratio of their PROPERTY VALUATION PER STUDENT ratio. Some of the reasons growth has slowed recently has more to do with the market forces but when the above policies start to take effect they will have long lasting effects on the district?’s growth. The increased new home values will also be making a positive impact on the valuation per student ratio as well.

Clearly we can all see some new commercial development occurring in our community. Changing the balance with slower residential and just a steady increase of commercial development will be a positive affect on the property valuation per student ratio.

What Hackworth and the council majority have not done is in his last paragraph.

I hope they continue to keep their focus on this statement of three years ago. As we see in the postings below the school system needs to join with the City and the Township to ?“forge that agreement?” that Mr. Hackworth talked about in his 2002 posting.

Every candidate running for office in this community should be held to the vision Hackworth shared with us three years ago.












By Ground Hog

There are 4 !

I can assure you that there are four candidates ready to continue in the direction set forth (as promised) by this administration. One of them is a participant of that administration. The other three have apparently made a big enough impression on this administration to have earned their support.

Oh yeah, Parker, Wright, Sabatino and ''Parkertino Fix'' are also running. Forget about it guys. You're completely outclassed!

What if?

I guess I wasn't clear enough in my posting. Let me clarify.


If in 2003, Lee Gray's business partner Chris Smith had won the open council seat and Brian Wisniewski had lost would Mitch O'Brien be on council today?

Would any of what Hackworth envisioned in 2002 be happening today?

Could all of the programs and projects being considered and being worked on presently be reversed on November 8th?

What would happen if Sabatino was Chairman of Service? What would happen if Parker is on P & Z? What would happen if Wright is back in charge of Finance?

Here are some of their statements regarding those committees.

PARKER, ''YOU BUILD MORE HOMES AND IT LOWERS THE REAL ESTATE TAXES FOR EVERYONE.'' coming from a so-called resident that does not pay real estate taxes and lives above a flower shop.

WRIGHT with reference to a debt policy, ''I WILL OPPOSE THE NEW DEBT POLICY BECAUSE THE LANGUAGE IS TOO ABSOLUTE.'' It was requiring the builders to guarantee the TIF bonds.

SABATINO,''DILEY ROAD WILL NOT NEED TO BE WIDENED FOR 17 YEARS ACCORDING TO THE ENGINEER.'' This is after he had the engineer eliminate all of the south bound traffic on the Diley Road traffic study and he only considered the north bound traffic.

Every program and policy that the gang of four promised in 2003 will end if we allow these people to take over again in November. Will there ever be a chance of a cooperative effort between the schools, the city and the township if we become complacent on November 8th?





By Ground Hog