The news on television for the City of Youngstown has been all bad when it comes to money. In addition to the dummied up college degrees of its crack employees, questionable rehires to allow double dipping, paying part time employees full time salaries, and the tossing of major bids from reputable arena operators to run the Chevy Center in favor of a local guy from Struthers, it is facing a $4 million shortfall in its next fiscal year. The proposed solution? A 2 % income tax placed on non-city residents who work in Boardman and Austintown Townships and whose employers happen to use Youngstown City Water under township development contracts negotiated years and years ago. The City would then cut the income tax rate for the people who live in the city, and kick back a generous ¼% to the cash strapped townships. Where do I sign up for that deal??
Youngstown longingly looks to Columbus as to what it should have done as the population and development fled the city and moved into the townships. Columbus required any unincorporated area that needed water to be annexed into the city. The result is Columbus City limits stretch border to border in Franklin County, including all of the commercial, industrial, and residential development. The map looks a little screwy. The City surrounds other incorporated areas like Worthington, Westerville, and Dublin…. but it works. Akron took a little different approach, but Akron and Summit County have accomplished the same thing with its charter county government.
But that’s not the deal the City of Youngstown made. Various proposals have been put forth, including the outright annexing of Boardman, Canfield, and Austintown townships into the City. There was a hue and cry from township residents, and the proposal is now strangely silent. The City claimed that it had the legal authority to proceed with annexation. That’s the law for any new areas that want City water, but the issue isn’t as cut and dried for those already benefiting from City water. There is some case law floating around which states the City cannot break previously agreed to terms for water and sewer service.
Now the city is proposing a Joint Economic Development District, which creates several anomolies on its face. For example, you can work and live in Boardman Township and be forced to pay a city income tax levied against you by the city, over which you have no vote, because your employer's water comes from the city, generally north of SR 224. Your next door neighbor, on the other hand, could live and work in Boardman, but his employer's water is supplied by Aqua Ohio, generally south of SR 224, and he will pay no tax. One can envision a mass exit of businesses out of the northern half Boardman to the southern half, as property values are totally destroyed. The urban blight already moving up Market Street passed Midlothian would be accelerated. Beaver Township and Columbiana County would pick up all of the businesses fleeing the city water tax. This, in turn, would cause a disruption to county and school district tax revenue. It would be a fiasco.
This also begs the question why the city is choosing to forsake the annexation approach in favor of this Joint Economic Development District plan. First, it is a great deal for the City. Under the above described tax plan, the residents of the city get their income tax reduced. The residents of the townships are forced to pay an income tax for which they have no vote. The townships get a pittance.
Second, and this is the kicker, the power structure within the City remains exactly the same. Here is the unspoken secret about the City and township annexation. By annexing the townships, the City gets not only the land, but the township citizens who would then be voters. Right now, for the first time in history, the African American community controls the City. There is a black mayor, a majority black city council, and a majority black school board. And they are not going to give that up!!! Any annexation would create a huge white majority in the City, and the first people booted out would be those who forced the annexation on the townships, with the black community once again being relegated to minority status. The JEDD approach, on the other hand, gives the City the best of both worlds, and sticks it to the primarily white townships.
The townships should stick to their guns and play hard ball with the City. If it looks like the City is going to press the issue, the townships should investigate jointly incorporating into one big city whose population would then exceed Youngstown’s. Call it Mahoning City, and make noise about moving the county seat out of Youngstown into the center of the county where it belongs. Maybe that would give the City pause.
Youngstown longingly looks to Columbus as to what it should have done as the population and development fled the city and moved into the townships. Columbus required any unincorporated area that needed water to be annexed into the city. The result is Columbus City limits stretch border to border in Franklin County, including all of the commercial, industrial, and residential development. The map looks a little screwy. The City surrounds other incorporated areas like Worthington, Westerville, and Dublin…. but it works. Akron took a little different approach, but Akron and Summit County have accomplished the same thing with its charter county government.
But that’s not the deal the City of Youngstown made. Various proposals have been put forth, including the outright annexing of Boardman, Canfield, and Austintown townships into the City. There was a hue and cry from township residents, and the proposal is now strangely silent. The City claimed that it had the legal authority to proceed with annexation. That’s the law for any new areas that want City water, but the issue isn’t as cut and dried for those already benefiting from City water. There is some case law floating around which states the City cannot break previously agreed to terms for water and sewer service.
Now the city is proposing a Joint Economic Development District, which creates several anomolies on its face. For example, you can work and live in Boardman Township and be forced to pay a city income tax levied against you by the city, over which you have no vote, because your employer's water comes from the city, generally north of SR 224. Your next door neighbor, on the other hand, could live and work in Boardman, but his employer's water is supplied by Aqua Ohio, generally south of SR 224, and he will pay no tax. One can envision a mass exit of businesses out of the northern half Boardman to the southern half, as property values are totally destroyed. The urban blight already moving up Market Street passed Midlothian would be accelerated. Beaver Township and Columbiana County would pick up all of the businesses fleeing the city water tax. This, in turn, would cause a disruption to county and school district tax revenue. It would be a fiasco.
This also begs the question why the city is choosing to forsake the annexation approach in favor of this Joint Economic Development District plan. First, it is a great deal for the City. Under the above described tax plan, the residents of the city get their income tax reduced. The residents of the townships are forced to pay an income tax for which they have no vote. The townships get a pittance.
Second, and this is the kicker, the power structure within the City remains exactly the same. Here is the unspoken secret about the City and township annexation. By annexing the townships, the City gets not only the land, but the township citizens who would then be voters. Right now, for the first time in history, the African American community controls the City. There is a black mayor, a majority black city council, and a majority black school board. And they are not going to give that up!!! Any annexation would create a huge white majority in the City, and the first people booted out would be those who forced the annexation on the townships, with the black community once again being relegated to minority status. The JEDD approach, on the other hand, gives the City the best of both worlds, and sticks it to the primarily white townships.
The townships should stick to their guns and play hard ball with the City. If it looks like the City is going to press the issue, the townships should investigate jointly incorporating into one big city whose population would then exceed Youngstown’s. Call it Mahoning City, and make noise about moving the county seat out of Youngstown into the center of the county where it belongs. Maybe that would give the City pause.
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