Taxes
2024: many commentators believe this year is the critical turning point in American history. It’s either the confirmation of the Trump Era, cementing his values into our national conscience, or the end of it. So with all of that swirling above us, like a tornado that hasn’t quite touched down, yet; there are still other things to talk about on the 2024 ballot.
Here in Pataskala (and much of Western Licking County) there’s an issue on the ballot that, if passed, will raise our taxes. Like any tax increase, there’s lots of “friction” in the community. There’s a good reason that most successful politicians don’t run on the platform of “more taxes”. No one wants to pay more, especially the year after the County increased the appraised property values for taxation. My property tax bill already went up twenty-seven percent. For some, it’s easiest to quote President George HW Bush: “Read my lips, no new taxes”. That’s a statement he came to not only regret, but reverse.
West Licking
Western Licking County is within twenty miles of downtown Columbus. It was definitely “the country” when I moved “out here”, forty-six years ago, with a grain silo next to the railroad tracks, and a farm implement store along the main road. But there was already harbingers of the future: while the local high school was next to a corn field, a new suburban development was built across the street.
Today, West Licking is suburbs and industry. Along the National Road corridor, what once was alternating soybeans and corn, is now alternating distribution centers and factories. The farmers along State Route 310 gave way to one suburban development after another, with three hundred more homes scheduled in the next decade, and multiple apartment buildings going up even as I write this morning.
When Ohio’s political leaders talk about the new “Tech Corridor” here in Ohio, we are part of it. Not only is the “Chip Act” Intel manufacturing plant being built just a few miles away, but all of the accompanying industry to support it is going up too. One of the major solar panel production plants in the Nation is right down the street from my house. And only about half of the “developable” land in our area is used, that means there’s a lot more growth to go.
Fire Department
When I first came to Pataskala, it had a volunteer fire department. Every few days, a siren would go off, and the barber and the hardware store clerk and even some of the high school students would jump up, race to their cars, and report to the emergency. They had a station in “downtown” Pataskala, behind the city hall, and a station in Kirkersville. But with the exploding growth of our community, came an increasing need for a professional fire department, on duty for all emergencies. Now, West Licking Fire has six stations, each staffed full-time (WLFD).
Back in 1978, the fire department mostly dealt with house and barn fires, car wrecks, and personal emergencies. Now, there’s still all that, but there’s industrial fires, and thousands of suburban homes in the back of complex developments. What a few intrepid volunteers handled back then, now requires well-trained and professional firefighters. And what might have been a few “runs” a day, I can tell you from direct experience is now full-time, with multiple squad runs, more fire runs, and other emergency runs from each of the six stations. We live within “throwing distance” of a main road, State Route 16. We hear the good folks of West Licking Fire, rushing to help, multiple times a day and night.
Expanding Needs
In any community, when you dial 9-11, you want an immediate response. When we had a health emergency here, the squad arrived in five minutes, and saved a life. We happen to be only a mile or so from “Station One”. But part of great emergency service is having the whole community within “a mile or so” from responders. So as the community continues to explode in development, the fire department needs to expand as well.
Expansion, development, more people, more industry, more emergencies; it’s not something you want your Fire Department to “fall behind”. There are some areas where public services often lag: road development and public schools are two where expanding communities traditionally play catch-up. That means that the areas are willing to be inconvenienced by over-crowded schools and traffic snarls until the “new folks” get to pay new taxes. Even if you know that you’ll need a 2000 kid high school in a decade, the cost of building it is too high for the “1400 kid high school community” that’s here right now.
Can’t Wait
But fire and emergency services can’t wait. “Catching-up” means that people and property are in increased danger. The price of waiting isn’t worth the cost in tax savings. And it certainly isn’t worth the probable cost in lives.
West Licking is asking for a 4 mill increase in property taxes, that will raise an additional nine million dollars. It will go to staffing and equipment, getting better ready to respond to the “next” emergency. Like most Ohio property tax issues, it will never raise more than the dollar amount. As more folks come into the community, that cost will be spread among them too. So what costs $140 per $100,000 in property valuation this year, will decrease as the cost is “spread out” over more homes.
When you dial 9-11, West Licking Fire doesn’t ask if you voted for the levy or not. They just come to put out your fire, or save your life. And your own expectations don’t change either: you call and expect them to show up, fast. In our growing community, we want to make sure that continues to happen. No matter who you choose at the top of the ballot this fall, vote YES for the West Licking Fire levy.
