City officials added a wrinkle to their latest proposal: a three-year phase-in period starting with a 1 percent income tax with a full 1 percent credit for people who pay a similar tax elsewhere. That would rise to a 1 percent tax with no credit in the second year and a 2 percent income tax with a 1 percent credit in the third.

Critics and supporters alike, however, say that might not be enough to overcome long-standing differences between residents of the original village of Pataskala and those who live in former Lima Township.

The two merged 13 years ago because residents of both feared annexation by Columbus or its suburbs and wanted to control their own destiny.

Income-tax supporters say the tax issue is more palatable, given the current economic climate, and is easier on senior citizens and people who recently might have lost their jobs than a property tax would be. Its detractors say it will cost the average family far more than a property tax proposed earlier this year and has no chance of passing.

"For one, voters don't want it," said Mike Fox, a former city councilman who is running for mayor. "And there are not enough businesses and workers to make a reasonable income tax viable."

He said the city should have gone with a 7-mill property tax proposed by Councilman C. Bernard Brush, who is running for re-election this fall. Fox said he would not actively campaign against the income tax while seeking election, mainly because he doesn't have to. "I'll let the income tax speak for itself."

Mayor Steve Butcher, who is seeking re-election, said he would have supported either issue but has often said he believes that the city needs an income tax for long-term stability. Pataskala is one of two cities in the state without income-based revenue.

If the tax issue passes, he said, priorities for the city will be to plow and salt roads more this winter and return to repairing broken streetlights.

City officials have yet to get hard numbers back from the Regional Income Tax Agency about what the different figures would generate, but estimates of $200,000 to $400,000 have been given for the first year and $1.7 million for the second.

Residents remain divided on the tax despite the new formula, with those such as Mike Lunsford saying residents need to understand that the money for city services has to come from somewhere.

"People need to wake up and realize, you can't operate the city the way they want, with the services they want, without any revenue," he said.

He said he thought the income tax was the fairer of the two proposals, but that won't mean anything unless the city can persuade residents of former Lima Township to support the tax, because many don't think they receive city services.

Jim Yearling would be the first to agree with that. Yearling, who lives on the northern edge of the city, doesn't think the township's merger in 1996 with the village has done him any good. He said his roads used to be plowed in the winter and patched in the summer, and he hasn't seen much of either since the city took over.

"They haven't done anything for me except tax me more," he said.

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