PATA History Pages

Pataskala Residents Ponder Undoing City/ Township Merger

Recent Merger leaves City coffers in Lurch

A few years ago, Pataskala merged with Lima Township, in an effort to thwart the incursion of the City of Columbus and Reynoldsburg into the area through annexations. In this manner, the merger has been sucessful. The resulting merger details did not include any municipal income tax and the city has been forced to rely on property tax revenue alone to pay for city services, road upkeep and other expenses. The proposal to impose a .75% income tax to help the situation was overwhelmingly defeated at the polls by Pataskala residents.

Most residents of unincorporated Violet Township have expressed opposition to any type of merger with the City of Pickerington. One of the main reasons is because the cost of offering city services and especially the cost of road upkeep (which is totally borne by a city within its borders) would be tremendous. Most township residents do not favor any income tax associatated with a municipality and would oppose it, if indeed an income tax was proposed as a part of a merger attempt. Clearly, the demands of servicing a large municipal area coupled with a poor revenue stream to support these needs, may degrade the quality of life in Pataskala. Would it be any different here if merger proponents had their way? Click the link below to the Dispatch article.