Get the moving vans ready. The very folks whose pay check depends on a stable tax base will run for the suburbs. Let’s check a year from now, two years, etc. Anyone want to predict how quickly city employees will move out?

If the only was to keep City employees from moving is to impose a residency requirement, then Toledo has a much bigger problem. A city does not grow and thrive by prohibiting people from moving.

I think Toledo’s biggest problem is that it refusing to confront its core problems. Toledo’s steady decline has gone on for decades even though it’s had a residency requirement.

What does it say about a city that has to force people to live within its borders?

I don’t blame folks for looking for a better life which certainly includes an area with effective police and fire protection, streets without potholes, trash collected efficiently, good schools…. Still, if city employees run for the suburbs, how long do you think it will be before they don’t have jobs?

I’m torn on this issue as well. Should be interesting to see how it plays out.

Yes it is, but that has a downside. Look at Detroit. I am personally friends with a few Detroit Public School teachers that live, as I do, in the suburbs. Their hearts are in the right place in that they really want to help make things better for the students.

But no way they would subject their families to living in Detroit, and who really would suffer in that case – the students.

It is a complicated issue but there a parallels in many cities in the U.S.

On the other hand, the idea of teachers living in an area where they work is appealing. If their childrens’ education, their home property values are on the line – logic dictates they’d have the highest standards.

If a City administrator or employee were in the same position, then you would think they would demand the best for the area and be a good steward of funds.

It’s a tough topic.

I realize school districts can’t enforce residency requirements but it has been an issue that has come up when levies are on the ballot, that the teachers don’t support the districts in which they teach for their own children.

I am not a Toledo resident, but I still have to pay the full payroll tax as does my husband. So, my tax dollars pay City employees and I have no expectation that they should live in the City.

However, there is a remedy. Get the legislature to change the law.