A paper township is a type of civil township under Ohio law that does not act as a functioning unit of civil government. Such townships usually exist due to annexation by cities and villages.
Cities and villages in Ohio, which all sprang from townships, are allowed to continue to exist above townships. Once the territory of a township is completely enveloped by cities and villages, the township government ceases to function. Rumps of townships can be left to function in the event a city or village does not completely envelop the township, such as the relationship between Ashtabula County's Ashtabula Township and Ashtabula City.
Sometimes an entire township has been incorporated under a different name, such as Van Buren Township in Montgomery County, which became the City of Kettering in 1955. Probably the best known of these paper townships is Mill Creek Township, which was in south-central Hamilton County and was absorbed by the City of Cincinnati in the nineteenth century.
Some townships exist nominally in rump form but have no government. For example, in about 1980, Wayne Township in Montgomery County was re-incorporated as the city of Huber Heights. However, a small portion of Wayne Township — east of State Route 4 and south of State Route 235 — was part of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and could not be incorporated into the city of Huber Heights. Thus, that portion of Wayne Township, which is part of the Air Force Base, still nominally exists, but it has no local government.
Another kind of paper township allows a city or village to become completely independent of the real township from which it was created. Usually coextensive with the municipality, it prevents property owners within city limits from voting in both city and township elections but also relieves them of having to pay property taxes to both governments.[1]