JOBS THERMOMETER

Published 4/30/13 

In my opinion a jobs thermometer in the City Building window is nice but:  A city operates on revenue. In light of that rather obvious fact I offer that a tax revenue barometer display is more reflective of the "state of the city".

i.e. 1st quarter total income tax revenue for similar past quarters was: 2011 - $1,025,90; 2012 - $962,563 and 2013 - $955,528. 

Paul Hunter

Redundant Organizations One Poor the Other Rich.    

published 4/29/13

 (ORC) 1724.10 Political designating community improvement corporation (CIC) as agency for development.

A CIC shall promote and encourage the establishment and growth in such subdivision (City) of industrial, commercial, distribution, and research facilities

Wilmington’s CIC was created by city ordinance in February, 1970.

The CIC can only act on city projects.

4582 of the Revised Code of the State of Ohio:  Port authorities can own land, set fees, and levy taxes. They are usually self-sustaining and often operate airports, or shipping terminals. Local governments frequently establish port authorities to promote or support economic development.

Clinton County Port Authority (The Port) was created by the Board of Clinton County Commissioners around 2005. The Port can act on city and countywide projects.

The CIC

The CIC was created by city council in February of 1970. The primary mission was to obtain title by purchase to the closing Clinton County Air Force Base even though the base was not located within the city limits. The mission was accomplished and the Air Base went from a tax-exempt property to a property tax paying entity. The CIC then went into the real estate business selling and buying land on and adjacent to the former base.

Over the ensuing years the CIC has become a cash and real property heavy organization without a real city development mission.  The assets of the corporation are held in low interest CDs and real property holdings. Operating expenses and some minor contributions to The Port and the JUMP hangar projects is causing the total value of assets to decline. Total value was $2,844,73

at the end of 2009 and had decreased to $2,457,312 at the end of 2011.

Some members of the CIC Board of Directors include. Jan Claibourne, Bob Holmes (Chairman), David Hockaday (county employee and Chairman of The Port Board), John Limbert (former Chairman of The Port Board, Mayor Randy Riley, former Mayor Nick Eveland and former Mayor David Raizk ( executive director designate). The director position compensation was $26,000 in 2011.

In spite of being considered a public entity the CIC does not announce its meeting time or place. I was unable to obtain the 2012 financial statement at the time of this posting.

The Port

The Port was established at the time of DHL’s expansion at the Air Park in order to obtain underwriter fees from bond sales. A court decided that the Montgomery County Port would be the soul beneficiary of that multimillion-dollar issue. The court also decided that The Clinton County Port would be the authority for all future Clinton County activity. The Port was quiet for a few years and went almost unnoticed locally.

When DLH pulled out The Port was designated to accept the donation of the Air Park and all the costs of maintaining a near empty industrial site. Some, including this writer, was of the opinion that DHL should first make the site economically self-sustaining before the County’s Port took on the financial burden of such a huge enterprise.

In 2010 The Port took possession of the property and within a year and a half started to reduce the $1.5 million property tax payments by a combination of reevaluations and exemptions. By the end of 2011 the tax bill was reduced to $250 thousand. As a result Wilmington schools, already hard hit by the recession, lost $650,000 per year. Other revenue recipients including the city and county lost around $600,000. Another and less obvious problem was that, due to tax levy adjustments, commercial/industrial property tax rates increased by five mills without a vote.

The Port struggles on. At the end of the first quarter of 2013 the financial statement states, that to date, revenue is 7.2% below expected while expenses were 22% above budget prediction.

The Port Board of Directors meets in the Administration building a 9:00 AM on the second Thursday of each month. A public question and comment period follows the open meeting.

The Port Board members are David Hockaday (Chaiman & County employee), Bill Marine (former chairman), Brian Smith, Fred Ertel (county employee), Ed Kuehn, Ron Rudduck, Kathleen Madison and Jim Reynolds. Kevin Carver is the Executive Director and is assisted by Beth Huber. The budgeted combined employee compensation cost is $321,000.

Paul Hunter 

 

Ohio’s big gambling aims to shutdown small town competition.    Posted 4/28/13 Leader: Ohio Senate ready to outlaw Internet cafes

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — At the urging of some of the state's top law enforcers, the once reticent Ohio Senate has decided to move forward with a ban on Internet cafes they now believe are conducting illegal gambling. Republican Senate President Keith Faber said Wednesday that a majority of his caucus now agrees the cafes are involved in criminal activities, including illegal gambling, and should be outlawed. Faber introduced an emergency bill late Tuesday immediately halting any new Internet cafes and requiring operators of current ones to file new, more thorough affidavits with the state that include background information on the facilities' true owners. "Hopefully, we can get this done in a way that we don't have to worry about this again," Faber said. "But history has proven that this is something where we have to stay vigilant. These folks who figure out a way to operate in this area have a willingness to bend the law." http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2013/04/ohio_casinos_fund_effort_to_wi.html Ohioans Against Illegal Gambling recently sent out postcards asking voters to pressure key senators into approving a regulatory bill so tough it would likely put most of the state's 800 or so cafes out of business. House Bill 7 breezed through that chamber earlier this year, but Senate leaders indicate they may deliberate into next year. Carlo LoParo, the group's spokesman……….LoParo said the group receives money from the owners of Ohio's four casinos and the state's seven horse tracks, which have or plan to install video-lottery terminals, or slot machines.

Commentary on pending school funding legislation:  Posted 4/27/13

I agree with Superintendent Sexton’s point that the Wilmington City Schools (WCS) suffered a unique major reduction in property tax revenue due primarily to the loss of the Air Park tax base. 

As a result of this $650 thousand loss in annual revenue Mr. Sexton feels that the governor realized this when his proposed funding plan increased the WCS state assistance by more than a million dollars in each of the next two years. It is the superintendent’s responsibility to defend the district’s funding and he has done so.

As a side note, I would posit that while the Air Park is a countywide asset only the WCS lost significant revenue from the devaluation of that tax base and thus may deserve special treatment.

As best that I can recall from a phone conversation with Mr. Rosenberger, our state representative, he defended the GOP controlled Houses’ decision to alter the governor’s school financing plan. He stated that there is a limited amount of money in the budget for education and that he represents several very poor school districts that would not get a decent share of that money under the governor’s plan. He agrees that the WCS is a unique situation and that he plans to support separate funding legislation in the future for such hard hit districts. 

I applaud the desire to at least partially equalize funding for poor districts. Several state administrations and legislatures have ignored, for far too long, the Ohio Supreme Court’s finding that school funding based on district property value is unconstitutional.

In my opinion the major negative point in the legislature’s position is the size of the education funding pot. The House wants to eliminate the governor’s sales tax plan that would have generated new revenue, maintain the planned cut in income tax rates and reduce the severance tax on the booming Ohio oil and gas tax extraction industry. Budget constraints are worthy goals but when the basic institution for long-term economic health, education, is short changed, it’s also pound foolish.  It’s no coincidence that the poorest states in the country also have the poorest public education systems.

Paul Hunter    

R&L Trucking Registration

Fact: In 2008 R&L Carriers, a major Clinton County, Ohio trucking company, decided to transfer its vehicle registration from Ohio to Indiana. Among the reasons given by the company for the change was that Ohio did not provide either competitive pricing or electronic registration for its commercial vehicles. A price comparison research by this poster at the time indicated that, for most vehicle categories, Indiana’s registration costs were more or less the same as Ohio’s.

One result of this change was that the Wilmington street maintenance fund that had been completely financed by vehicle registration dollars. For example in the 2007 and 2008 city budgets, no city taxpayer money was allocated to the street fund. After the 2008 R&L action, the 2009 budget required nearly $700,000 of taxpayer money to be transferred to the Streets fund. The county took an even greater hit on its Roads and Bridges budget. Does this information indicate a cause and effect relationship?

A statement issued by R&L on July 3, 2008 rightly claimed that most of the fees collected by Indiana were returned to Ohio but what they did not say was that, according to the BMV, this money was divided into 2,300 Ohio political subdivision shares.

This conclusion was also included in the statement: “If Ohio is someday able to provide the same ease of use [electronic filing] and cost savings as Indiana, R&L is happy to return it’s truck registration to the State of Ohio.

Fast forward to March 30, 2011: “Kasich Signs House Bill 114…..Simplifies the commercial vehicle registration process and increases commerce by allowing companies to renew registration  online with a credit card rather than spending a day at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV).”

The bill became effective in January of 2012 and was implemented in July of that year.

To date there has not been any notification to local government officials indicating that R&L is changing registration back to Ohio.

Note: Due to past BMV errors Wilmington was not a legal recipient of R&L fees and will not benefit from the return of registration to Ohio if and when it occurs.

Paul Hunter

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