Why would Amelia be "absorbed" by the neighboring townships ? Is this a state thing ?
I tend to agree with you. If you want to dance, ya gotta pay the band.
The Coast wackos want to 'privatize' all government services so that their fat-cat buddies can make a buck off of the basic services we all need.
Of course these types scream the loudest for a government bailout when their investment bank fails.
Chris Finney is involved which is reliable indication that it's a bad idea.
Amelia is the armpit of the Cincinnati Metro, this doesn't surprise me.
If Cincinnati were to relinquish its charter, our local governments would be the Mill Creek, Columbia, Springfield, Green, and a few other townships. Probably an even trade given the quality of our present administration. Actually, putting the government back in the county's hands would be a way to force the issue of metro government.
Columbia Township is one of the silliest townships in the country. Just look at the boundaries, only Ohio would allow such foolish boundaries to exist. These townships should have been consolidated into the city of Cincinnati a long time ago.
John, you clearly haven't seen a municipal map of Southern California.
What's amazing is that 250 people have signed this idiotic initiative. It seems pretty clear that they'll save on tax money by staying a village.
They could always not have trash pickup.
Or better yet, have individuals pay their own trash pick-up. That would go GREAT until the first trash day!
Quim, cities and villages are entities that are punched out of existing townships and counties (legally). They can be dissolved and their territory reverts back to what it was (townships within a county) before the incorporation of the city/village. The historic benefit to forming a city/village was essentially self-rule and the ability to enact taxes to provide better services. Townships could only do what state statute authorized them to. Recently however, the state has been affording townships more and more self rule authority.
John, Columbia Township is a result of antiquated annexation laws due to Cincinnati and Ohio being much older than most cities/states in the US. Today (including Ohio), when a city annexes it cannot create township pockets like was done with Columbia Township. Current Columbia Township jurisdiction is nobody's fault (other than our great grandparents' lack of foresight). Township government has virtually no say in annexation and the annexations occurred in many small, separate occurrences by various cities.
I do not know much about Amelia's demographics, but I will say this in their defense. Many Ohio "cities" (e.g., Silverton) are far too small with far too little tax base to exist as a city. Their formerly larger populations have long left. Thus, they do more harm than good. They should merge with nearby cities to gain economies of scale or revert to the township/county government style.
BAM--just one quibble with your explanation of the city/village/township relationship.
A city can fully withdraw from a township (and most do)--a new "paper township" is created with no governmental functions at all. To the best of my knowledge, all of the City of Cincinnati is Millcreek Township, even areas that were once in another, exiting township.
Villages generally cannot withdraw from a township. Thus, the residents of the village can vote in both municipal and township elections, and may pay property tax to the township for a provided service (usually Fire/EMS). This is far from uniform, however.
Anyway, that might clarify how the residents of the village may "revert" to being residents of the respective townships (in fact they already are in those townships).
Why am I not surprised that the blog author writes a commentary strongly in favor of bigger government.
Why is an earnings tax needed? I can't figure that one out. West Chester seems to do just fine as a township.
Sounds like an earnings tax and the city model exists solely to keep many locals on the public dole in terms of city jobs. Is there any reason Cincinnati residents are penalized 2.1% of their income and Covington and Newport residents 2.5% just to fund a bloated, inefficient city government?
Kudos to Amelia residents for taking a stand against incompetent government officials and bloated government.
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