Where Does Our Tax Money Go?
Over the course of the last month I’ve heard the candidates mention that businesses in West Chester receive a substantially lower dollar amount in services than a residence. In the Trustee candidate forum on Oct 15th, Trustee candidate Mark Welch stated that for every dollar of taxes collected, 45 cents is spent on business services versus $1.12 being spent on residence services. In a recent conversation with Trustee George Lang and Mark Welch, I stated that I would love to see that number broken down by neighborhood or area. While the numbers make a great point, perspective is everything.
My family moved to Liberty Township in the late 70’s when I was a high school freshman. Back then much of both Liberty and West Chester Township (Union Township at the time) was cornfields. By virtue of the size of Lakota and getting a drivers license at 16, I was able to visit my school friends all over the local area. I had several close friends that lived in Maud and visited them often and remember how it looked then. Today, when I drive through the older section of Maud, it’s like passing through a time portal back to the 70’s – 80’s.
The Real Numbers?
In that conversation with Trustee Lang and Mark Welch, I suggested that if they were to break those numbers down further, by neighborhood, I would wager that Maud has received even less services than the 45 cents that businesses get. That is unless you include the ridiculous amount of salaries and legal expenses spent by the zoning department. If that were factored in, I’m sure Maud receives 10 times the township attention. I also wagered that the Beckett Ridge area probably received more than the $1.12 in services that the average residence receives. I’d bet the same applies to the other older neighborhoods of West Chester.
I get the whole “Downtown” thing. It makes perfect sense to me to have a downtown West Chester. It also makes sense to me to avoid splitting the downtown area between the Union Center, Cincinnati-Dayton and Tylersville Rd exits. I’m not arguing the logic of developing the Union Center business district. I’m talking about the residential areas.
I’m not the first person that has brought up the disproportional spending in West Chester Township. It has come up in reference to the Cin-Day area, US 42 corridor and Kingsgate areas in the past. The Township staff seems to be heavily represented by residents in the south west portion of the township. Many of the politically active also seem to hail from the south west. in I’d like to see West Chester Township break down the spending by area. Putting it to paper, in a report would diminish the chances that spending is directly proportional to political influence.