Wed Feb 22 2012
The "Regional Prosperity initiative" (www.neo-rpi.org) is a tax-sharing/land-use-sharing/services-sharing proposal with cities in our region. You may not know much about it, and I believe that's by design. Google search "Hub-Times RPI" for articles.
I think proponents are trying to convince us it's not tax sharing by using cleverly crafted language such as: funds will come only from "new growth taxes," stating there will be "no new taxes," "this is not tax-sharing" and the latest incarnation -- it's just "resource sharing." The language changes depending on where the opposition comes from.
A proposal calls for "pooling" 40 percent of new business tax dollars (including school taxes), plus 20 percent of currently collected city income tax. Hudson would be the "giver" not the "receiver," and these revenues would be subjected to an outside authority. The plan shows great detail about where the taxes would come from and how they "could" be re-distributed, but doesn't offer any specific plan to attract all the new businesses its premise implies. We'd be lumped in with poorly governed and often corrupt cities that continually experience significant population and tax revenue losses that are quite happy to tap into ours. Regionalism would only reward irresponsible governing and lack of accountability, in my opinion.
Our city is wonderfully unique -- we have great people, great schools, a great socio-economic position that each of us has worked very hard to achieve, both individually and collectively. All that will change when and if regionalism comes to town. Call your elected officials: City Council, State Sen. Frank LaRose, State Rep. Kristina Roegner and let them know we don't need this type of "social engineering."
Patricia O'Neill, Hudson
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