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Better way

Posted

In his letter to The Times for Nov. 15, Walt Franklin did an excellent job of explaining why a property tax is the better way to establish a reliable revenue source for the needs of our town. I do not understand why there are a number of people out there who fail to see the need for such.

Our street maintenance program has been deferred to the point many of the secondary streets are showing signs of major deterioration, we are forced to hire outside contractors for feasibility studies and to conduct building inspections because the town staff has been reduced below that which is required to conduct routine town business.

There is no room for any increase in public safety costs when the existing agreements must be renegotiated. There is a one-man band doing his best in promoting Fountain Hills to new businesses. Our coverage by MCSO is such that the number of stop sign runners and speeders has increased dramatically, endangering us all, particularly children walking to the school bus.

We are faced with a significant shortfall even if we continue to conduct the town’s business as we are now. Continuing to kick the financial can down the road is rapidly approaching its natural limits.

The fact that previous attempts to establish a primary property tax have failed is no reason not to attempt to right those wrongs. Those votes failed because there was little to no effort put forth by town government explaining the need or urging passage.

There is no fairy godmother available to make our money issues go away and if we want Fountain Hills to continue to be a nice place to live, we must put the heat on the Town Council and get out the vote for a positive result.