THIS OHIO TOWN DISSOLVED ITSELF OVER A 1 PERCENT TAX INCREASE

village known as Amelia voted to dissolve its government last year, seemed bewildered and a little alarmed. The paper acknowledged that it isn’t exactly unprecedented for a municipal regime to shut its doors: Since 2012, it noted, “at least 12 in Ohio alone” have “dissolved or are in the process of doing so.” But it added that these fights usually happen “for financial reasons, often because shrinking populations or reduced state funding make paying for basic services unsustainable.” Amelia was growing, and it wasn’t in particularly dire financial straits. The battle there erupted over what the called “a new local tax