In My Opinion - by Bob Ruth
September 20, 2026 — Bob Ruth
Mayor Ike Stage appears obsessed with expansion.
Single-family housing subdivisions, condos and apartment complexes are sprouting up everywhere. Zoning codes now allow postage stamp-sized lots. New homes seem to be built on top of each other.
A growing number of voters are beginning to ask, Why the pell-mell rush?
In My Opinion believes – “theorizes” might be a better word – that a major part of the answer lies deep within our 81-year-old mayor’s ego. Simply put, Ike Stage seems to want Grove City to keep its ranking as the second most-populous Columbus suburb by the time he finally retires.
And, if that’s his goal, the mayor appears to be succeeding. Our town has an estimated 45,000 residents, about 4,000 people behind the leading suburb – Dublin.
Grove City’s housing boom – adding 3900 residents since 2020 census – provides another boost for Stage. Developers, real estate agents and their lawyers – some of the biggest beneficiaries of the mayor’s expansionist policies – are among Stage’s most generous campaign donors. And this money has fueled Stage’s re-elections. He has been Grove City’s mayor for 26 years.
But population surges can cause problems:
SPEND, SPEND, SPEND
There’s another problem – a whopping big financial problem. City Hall doesn’t raise enough money through normal means to finance all the infrastructure and other public services needed to accommodate the people who live in those new housing developments. For the last three years, Stage’s administration has spent significantly more than it’s taken in, according to city budget figures.
Two factors have kept the city government afloat.
Of course, the money for these projects doesn’t magically appear out of thin air, as many TIF fans apparently want voters to believe.
Under TIFs, the city and developers don’t foot the bills for sewer and water lines, streets, sidewalks, curbs and other improvements in and around new residential complexes. Instead, the money is siphoned from property tax-supported public entities. These revenue-losing entities include the Jackson Township Fire Department and county agencies that serve sexually abused children, orphans, low-income senior citizens, the mentally ill, the developmentally disabled and alcohol and drug rehabilitation programs. In other words, our community’s most vulnerable.
The Jackson Township Fire Department, which serves Grove City, provides a prime example of the damage TIFs cause to property-tax funded agencies. Over a 10- year span ending in 2024, the fire department lost a total of $22.8 million because of TIFs initiated by Stage’s administration.
Most of this lost money results from a TIF for the affluent Pinnacle housing development. The fire department and its paramedics serve homes throughout the entire sprawling neighborhood. But Jackson Township gets none of the increased property tax revenue resulting from those homes.
And even worse: The City Council in December extended the Pinnacle TIF for an additional 15 years to the year 2050.
PROPERTY TAX INCREASES
Lost TIF revenue was a major reason a property tax increase was placed on the ballot in 2020, Jackson Township trustees said. As the Jackson Township case shows, TIFs screw homeowners in the long run. Because of tens of millions in lost revenue, township fire departments and other property tax- supported agencies are forced to ask homeowners for higher and more frequent tax increases.
But Stage and City Council members don’t have to worry, their political necks aren’t on the block. The money doesn’t come from the city treasury. So, they don’t have to ask for city tax increases to finance these projects. Those unpleasant and politically tough decisions are left up to officials overseeing the fire department and county agencies that lose property-tax revenue to TIFs.
It’s sort of like Pontius Pilate washing his hands of guilt for the crucifixion of Jesus. Or, maybe, like Marie Antoinette, the clueless queen who said “Let them eat cake” when told starving French peasants couldn’t afford bread.
MONEY WOES MOUNT
Even with all the Stage administration’s blue-smoke-and-mirrors, City Hall faces some troubled financial waters. The solution: In April, the Stage administration suggested increasing the city payroll tax by 25 percent.
The money is needed to finance day-to-day operating costs for a proposed community/recreation center, the administration told Council. But only 22 percent of the new payroll tax revenue would be used for the center, the administration added. The rest would help keep City Hall operating and build even more infrastructure projects, Council members were told.
WHITE ELEPHANT BRIDGE?
One of the most grandiose of these proposed projects is the so-called Bridge-To-Nowhere. Under this $30 million-or-so beauty, an overpass across I-71 would be built linking the Mount Carmel area to about 1,000 acres of vacant land west of the highway. A roundabout that would be part of the overall project is already under construction.
The vacant acreage, according to Stage, could be developed into medical-related buildings and light industry. It’s reminiscent of a famous line from the movie Field of Dreams: “Build it, and they will come.”
But the Stage administration would be gambling with our hard-earned tax dollars. What if “they” – developers – don’t come? Taxpayers would be stuck with a $30 million-or-so white elephant that leads to vacant -or, at best, under-developed – land.
In addition, the 1,000 acres borders on two major existing thoroughfares – Rt. 665 and Harrisburg Pike. Skeptics ask, If the huge undeveloped area can be easily accessed by two existing major roadways, why spend millions on a new bridge?
The Bridge-To-Nowhere gamble reminds skeptics of another risky city venture that fell flat – the multimillion-dollar construction of roadways at the northwest corner of Rt. 665 and I-71. This expensive project was expected to spur development of clean-energy businesses. Many years later, the land around the roadways remains vacant, except for woods and corn fields.
