Frequently Asked Questions

1. Won’t cityhood just mean I will have to pay more taxes than I do now as a West
Chester resident?

The primary reason for becoming a city is to provide tax relief for the citizens of West
Chester. A City of West Chester will have the ability to levy an income (earnings or
payroll) tax on the vast number of individuals who work but do not live in West Chester.
A 1% income tax will generate over $20 million in outside revenue allowing us as voters
to simply vote no on renewing the existing police, fire and emergency service levies.

With cityhood, the typical homeowner in West Chester will pay $650-700 less in
property taxes. At the same time, the great majority of our residents will not pay any
West Chester income tax since they either pay an income tax to another community, are
retired or are otherwise unemployed.

Residents who work in West Chester must compare their property tax savings with their
estimated income tax to determine whether their taxes will increase or be reduced. A
Tax Impact Calculator is provided for your convenience at www.itstime.bz .

2. If West Chester becomes a city, will I have to pay income taxes on my social
security, retirement, investments or other non-wage income?

Our new city council will have the authority to pass an ordinance creating a 1%
municipal income tax (often called payroll or earnings tax) on qualified resident and non-
resident wages and salaries and on net business profits. The income tax ordinance
normally includes exceptions for social security, pensions, qualified retirement plans,
interest and dividends, capital gains, royalties, military pay and allowances, alimony,
annuities, unemployment benefits, workers compensation, and permanent disability
compensation. The ordinance also typically grants full reciprocity to residents and
businesses who must pay local income taxes elsewhere.

The citizens of West Chester may also chose to incorporate these exceptions into a
municipal charter. Regardless, no candidate for city council should be elected without
publicly and firmly committing to support these income tax exceptions.
3. If I live in West Chester, but work in another city with an income tax, will I be
subject to the West Chester income tax? What is reciprocity?

Most cities give their residents and businesses full credit for income taxes that must be
paid to another local community not to exceed the amount of city income taxes due.
This is the meaning of full reciprocity.

4. How do we know that property taxes will actually go down and that the money
won’t be spent on other stuff?

“Don’t give us more money or we’ll just spend it on other things” is a clever sound bite,
but it is also misleading.

The primary reason for becoming a city is so that West Chester residents will pay
significantly less - not more - to support our local government. The typical homeowner in
West Chester will pay $650-700 less in property taxes with cityhood and the vast
majority of our citizens will not pay a single penny in West Chester income taxes.

A West Chester police levy would normally be on the ballot this year or next. A fire and
emergency services levy passed in 2006 would normally be on the ballot in 2011. Once
voters approve cityhood, any attempt to pass a police levy - other than interim - would
be resoundingly defeated by West Chester voters. Any effort to renew the fire or
emergency services levies would also be defeated. Since cities may only levy up to a
1% income tax without voter approval; any increases beyond the 1% would have to be
approved by West Chester citizens.

5. How do I know the financial numbers aren’t bogus?

The West Chester Study Group consisted of 25 highly-qualified and dedicated residents
who came together on more than 50 occasions and volunteered thousands of hours to
determine whether our community could reduce taxes, control the size of government
and still maintain adequate services. The Study Group gathered financial facts from the
most objective and reliable sources available and applied a highly conservative
approach to projecting City of West Chester revenues.

Some of these authoritative sources included the U.S. Census Bureau, various
Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports, the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional
Planning Commission, the Ohio Department of Taxation, the Ohio Public Works
Commission, the Butler County Auditors Office, the Butler County Engineer’s Office,
West Chester’s Finance, Road and Economic Development Departments, and Claritas,
Inc.
6. Becoming a city just means West Chester will have bigger government and
more bureaucracy, doesn’t it?

The form of local government we choose does not determine its size or the quality of its
services. There are over 900 cities in Ohio and each has its own size and level of
bureaucracy.

As a limited-home rule township, West Chester already provides city-level services. For
example, we provide our own legal, planning & zoning, economic development, capital
construction, communications, road repair and other community services. We also
consider our existing police, fire and emergency services to be second-to-none and
present staffing levels help support this claim:

City Police Fire

Fairfield 60 30
Hamilton 174 116
Mason 37 24
Middletown 85 84
Monroe 30 32
West Chester 88 126

It is true that as a city, West Chester will be required to have a city council and a city
auditor, collect income taxes, assume responsibility for building permits/inspections and
maintain county and state roadways located in West Chester. The estimated additional
cost for 2006 was $2.0 million. West Chester, however, also would have received an
estimated $2 million in additional State revenues from fuel taxes, license taxes and local
government funds.

Becoming a city does not prevent West Chester from spending tax dollars wisely.
Disciplined spending is always prudent and cityhood will not hinder West Chester from
pursuing shared service agreements, economies of scale, managed competition or
other cost saving measures. To the contrary, West Chester citizens will have much more
say over how their tax dollars are spent.

7. Doesn’t cityhood take power away from the people and hand it over to a small
group? Won’t we lose control over our government and our future?

Absolutely not. West Chester today is in the hands of a very small group. With just
three township trustees representing 65,000 people, it takes but two to decide the future
of our community. In fact, cityhood will give our community true “home rule” status. We
will have the maximum powers of local control and self-determination available. We will
be able to decide for ourselves how many council representatives are needed (e.g.,
3,5,7) and whether they should be elected at-large or by ward. We also will have the
option of developing a municipal charter and thereby creating the form of government
that will best restrict spending, facilitate efficiency and reflect our unique local situation.
Municipal charters are all about good government and self-determination. West Chester
citizens, for example, could choose to include a prohibition against future property tax
increases, an ethics policy that provides penalties for abuse of public office or perhaps
term limits for elected officials in its municipal charter.

West Chester cityhood also means that our existing County layer of bureaucracy will be
eliminated and the citizens of West Chester will have more control over policy-making,
priority-setting and spending. For example, West Chester will adopt its own building
code and the responsibility for issuing local building permits and conducting inspections
will be transferred from Butler County to West Chester. The trend is for cities to contract
with qualified firms for issuing building permits and conducting inspections so there is no
need to create a separate staff. Butler County and Blue Ash, for example, contract for
such services and these contracts serve as significant sources of revenue.

The point is that West Chester is better suited to managing its own affairs than Butler
County and that government closer to the people is better government. Some residents
view Butler County government as distant both in miles and mind-set. People who live
and work in West Chester will be more responsive to our needs and we will know whose
feet to hold to the fire.

Even if the City of West Chester should decide to contract with Butler County or others
for road paving, code enforcement and other services, we will be in a better position to
prioritize what we want done and how we want it done. Relationships will have changed
and we will have a lot more muscle. We will have greater local control and be better
able to determine our own future.

8. Won’t becoming a city “kill future economic development” which has been so
important to the growth of West Chester?

Another clever but misleading sound bite. West Chester is attractive to new businesses
for a multitude of reasons. For example:

* West Chester has four separate exits along I-75, one of the most heavily
traveled interstates in the country. West Chester also is located just north of
I-275 and is within a half hour of both Cincinnati and Dayton.

* Our Lakota School District has earned state and national recognition and has
been rated in the excellent category for education for seven straight years.

* Businesses in West Chester have access to a huge potential workforce. Over a

million potential workers live within a 45-minute commute of West Chester.

* West Chester offers a variety of local, state and federal incentives for new and
expanding businesses.

Businesses have not stopped coming to West Chester because we have the highest
property taxes in Butler County - nor will they stop coming to West Chester when we
replace a portion of these property taxes with a local income tax. Cities such as Blue
Ash and Mason boast an impressive track record when it comes to sustained economic
development despite having a local income tax. There is simply no reason to believe
that substituting an income tax for our police and fire levies will negatively impact
economic development in West Chester.

9. Shouldn’t West Chester be thinking regionally instead of locally?

We should be thinking both regionally and locally. Thinking regionally means partnering
with those around us to achieve common goals. It does not mean sacrificing local
identity or giving up local assets so that another community might prosper. To be
successful, partnerships must benefit all parties - not just some parties or one party at
the expense of another.

In effect, West Chester has become a host community in that we subsidize all the
communities around us. Most of our residents who work commute elsewhere and
therefore pay an income tax to support other communities. The great majority of West
Chester’s worker’s live elsewhere. Since West Chester does not collect an income tax,
these workers pay income taxes to their community of residence. We need to become a
city in order to be treated as an equal partner. We need to stop pretending that we are
still a township and put the citizens of West Chester first.

10. Why would we want to even consider becoming a city during these tough
economic times?

The fact is, we can no longer afford not to become a city. Many of our citizens -
especially the retired, the newly unemployed and others on fixed income - are struggling
just to pay their medical bills, feed their families and hold onto their homes.

Once the November elections are over we will be asked to vote for a school levy, a
police levy, several countywide levies followed by fire & emergency service levies. West
Chester families can no longer afford to carry such a heavy tax burden - nor is this even
necessary.

For more information or to help with the cityhood effort, call 777-7951 or visit
www.itstime.bz