Rachel Sauls
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Supporters of the proposed city of Hamilton are releasing a services plan and budget that give potential residents a better idea of what the city could look like should its incorporation be approved by local voters.
Both documents, which are available online at http://www.friendsofhamilton.org, detail the specific services future residents would receive from the city and how those services would be funded. After receiving a critique of the budget and making revisions, Friends of Hamilton President Chris Matthews said the group was able to lower the proposed city tax from 1.5 percent to 1.25 percent per $100 assessment of real and personal property.
“So far we’ve had positive responses to the services plan,” said Matthews. “And we tried to be realistic and conservative with the budget.”
According to a breakdown of tax rates provided by Hamilton County Trustee Bill Hullander, a tax rate of 1.25 percent per $100 assessment of real and personal property would make the proposed city of Hamilton the fifth lowest tax collector out of Hamilton County’s 11 municipalities.
But the proposed city still has a long way to go before becoming a municipality.
According to Hamilton spokesperson Brendan Jennings, supporters of the proposed city are preparing to launch a multi-faceted campaign that he hopes will encourage more registered voters in the area to sign a petition for incorporation of the city.
In order to gain a spot on the November ballot, the proposed city will need approximately 4,000 signatures by Sept. 1 to meet the 33.33 percent of affected registered voter signatures required by law. Matthews said Friends of Hamilton are working to verify the amount of signatures on the petition for incorporation.
“We’re not disclosing the number of signatures yet, but I feel like we are in a good place,” he said.
In addition to the campaign and a canvassing effort, Friends of Hamilton has also added three more petition locations to the list of places people can add their name to the official petition.
For more information, visit http://www.friendsofhamilton.org.