The last article I wrote was based on the concept that we as a community have not planned for our success. Despite our leader’s mostly-positive (and of course some not) actions to better our community, we have been reluctant to change.
As humans, we are torn between our basic nature and that which we were given by Divine Providence. It is the eternal tear between the two characters, one on each shoulder. The horned, fork-tail figure which whispers “don’t trust them” into one’s ear, that is really fear manifesting a basic, animal defensive mechanism. Isolationism is born from being afraid of outsiders. That is the death of rural America, and we must defeat that fear.
We the People have a people problem; there are not enough of us in Greene County to sustain our basic industries and commerce. Having more people is the solution to the problem. We need to fix that problem, but in fixing that, we must confront within ourselves the reluctance to grow our numbers.
Population growth has always been the strength of a society. The task is to determine how to invite, encourage and support new people moving into Greene County. The years of having large families in the agricultural community are now gone. But what we still have remaining, the character of that agricultural community, is the selling-part of the solution.
People love farms. It is an unspoken, instinctively-Americana value. And while most people realize they cannot live on a farm, they want to live by one. You don’t believe me? Try to get into Trax Farms on a Saturday in October. Good luck parking, as the lot is full of people from Peter’s Township spending their white-collar earnings on fresh produce, plants and $10.99 for a dozen cookies. Duda’s Farm no longer has a stand in our town, while Trax is awash in cash. Why? Trax has customers. I want to see customers shopping at a market like Trax somewhere along Route 21. But it is not just the physical farm which people crave. It is the idea of being part of a genuine, small-town feel America. We can sell that.
My second duty station with the Air Force was just south of Omaha, Nebraska. With the large volume of people moving into the Greater-Omaha area, Papillion, Nebraska, shot-up like a rocket in population. When I purchased my home in 2005, Papillion was listed by CNN-Money Magazine in Top-10 best cities to live in the United States. In 2015, it was #2 nationwide. How does a 248sq mile county in Nebraska (less than half of our size), with two small cities about the same physical size of Waynesburg and Carmichaels achieve this? People.
People moved south out of Omaha, seeking newer homes and friendlier neighborhoods. For comparison, in 1960, rural Sarpy County, Nebraska had a population of 31,000. By 2000, it was 123,000 and is estimated to be 200,000 today.
Conversely, Greene had 40,000 people in 1960, the same number in 2000, down to 34,000 today. Two rural counties, both south of roughly similar-sized cities, similar climate, except one main difference: the people in Sarpy County did not close their doors to newcomers but welcomed them. How? They gave them a place to live. Homes. Single family homes: affordable, attainable, and accessible.
About a decade ago, Morris Township had a plan to build a new community to the west of Nineveh on land granted from an energy company. While a noble plan, and still so, new real estate in Greene has an insurmountable obstacle: tax millage rates. We will never get people to move into Greene County until we have competitive millage rates.
Property tax burden is taken by multiplying millage rates by assessed values. Keep assessments too low, and millage rates will increase. Trying to build a new home, with a new assessment and high millage rates make your tax burden 300% more than a similar-sized twenty-year-old home.
Let us compare again. The property I owned in Nebraska had an assessed value at $146,000 in 2010, and an annual tax amount of $2,881, or 19.7 mills. Today it is valued at $263,500, with an annual tax amount of $3,842, or 14.6 mills. The valuation increased 81%, but the tax amount only increased 34%, which is less than inflation (49% 2010-2025, per U.S. CPI data). Conversely, if I moved that same 1680ft2 “starter” house to Franklin Township, the annual tax bill would be $10,385.
The home in Nebraska is correctly assessed; ours are not. We have a millage rate of 39.4 mills in Franklin Twp to counter these under-assessments. That has the effect of stopping all new construction, which then drives population decline. We must decrease the rate to 15 mills and then assess the properties correctly. That will bring in new homes and business. Our sell must be that moving to Greene County will have a lower tax burden versus living in Washington, Allegheny or Monongalia counties. But the millage rate is the obstacle which keeps people at bay. My concern is that this was done intentionally, to keep people away, and I see that as the problem.
This article is about how people are the solution, and to persuade locals to accept those whom they do not know as friends. I say the latter is the harder side of the ask, as it is the one where people need to look into the mirror and be comfortable enough with themselves to trust others. The stubborn part inside each of us is the greatest threat to our success.
Do not be that person. Welcoming and accepting is a big ask, and it takes moral courage to assuage the fear that new people are different. Yet it is also the traditional-Christian trait which will endear our community to others, bringing our County towards the Vision for its future.
