Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

Things Happening Cont.

5. In the Finance Committee there is a proposed ordinance they will establish a debt policy for Pickerington in the future. It will require council approval for staff to deviate from the policy. Of particular interest to the School District taxpayers is a small section on TIFs. In the future the city will require any developer receiving benefits from a TIF to guarantee that bond for the infrastructure improvements. The city has five TIFs currently and I believe only one is even close to paying for itself. For those that do not understand what a TIF is I will try to give a short explanation. This is a process or a scheme for a city to divert the tax dollars for a commercially improved project/property to pay for infrastructure needs. This diversion can be for up to 10 years and up to 75% of the future tax dollars of a property without the school district?’s approval. The idea here was to get some quick money to build say a road and then the property is developed and with the new development the new taxes increase so that in theory the new increased taxes do improve the school?’s situation. However Pickerington has allowed this to go on with no guarantees from the developers and the City Taxpayers are then accepting ALL of the development risk. In the future those that stand to make the big bucks from these investments must take on the risk not the City. This will force any future proposal to be sound developments before we risk ANY public money.

6. The new Council has stopped the huge Waste Water expansion project that we inherited in January 2004. With the permission of the Ohio EPA Pickerington was allowed to run a stress test on the current plant. That test showed that we could probably and safely increase that average flow through the plant up to 1.6 MGD. Currently the approved flow rate is 1.2 MGD. If the Ohio EPA allows Pickerington to amend its NPDES permit then we could pay down most of the current debt on the plant before taking on new debt for a plant expansion. My objection with the massive $11 Million expansion project proposed last year was that it forced the City to sell a MINIMUM of 250 sewer taps every year just to pay the debt service. Hopefully with the EPA approval we will be able to put off expansion a few years to pay down the debt. This will place less pressure on the City to sell sewer taps.

7. As an off shoot of the Service committee, the City is forming a Utilities Commission. We are hopeful that we can get that commission formed in the next couple of months. The purpose of this commission will be to review and recommend utility rates for our users. Much of the current debt on the Sewer and Water plants are under General Obligation bonds. Our goal in the future tied with our new debt policy above will be to convert much of this utility debt into revenue bonds. To convert this debt we must submit a plan to the lenders and we must have sufficient revenue to support these bonds in the future. That means we will probably see some dramatic increases in our water and sewer taps fees very soon.

WE ARE STILL LOOKING FOR CITY RESIDENTS TO SERVE ON THIS COMMISSION.

Things happening Cont.

The purpose of my message here is to connect all of the events and actions of the new council together. For those that pay little or no attention to the weekly events at city hall it may be hard to tie and connect all of these actions together. There is a very coherent policy taking shape and it will control future growth, improve the quality of the construction of new homes, and provide those desired amenities so many people want. Many of these amenities are beyond the immediate resources of the city taxpayers. For those quality of life issues and projects we must include the cooperation and resources of our Township residents. With that cooperation the reality of these joint facilities will come to life much sooner. Hopefully these efforts will receive the approval from the entire community.

In regard to our schools, and how your vote on this levy relates to the growth and general policies of our City Hall. I will say that every new development these developers will be made aware of the impact on our schools. They will also be asked to find ways to reduce that impact. I wish we could move faster but that is not a strong point in government. I will pledge to everyone my desire to control our community?’s future and I believe there is currently a majority at City Hall that feel that same way as I do. If you choose to vote against the levy fine, but if that negative vote is because of your perceived notion that nothing has changed on Lockville Road then you will never support a levy. In a few days I will receive my first Social Security check. Believe me, I feel the financial pain many of our citizens feel. It is in my family?’s interest and many others to reduce the frequency of these levy campaigns. Slowing the residential build out will do that.

Thank you,