My friend Phil Gaziano has it “pretty much” right: We will never be on a sound financial basis in this community as long as we depend on sales tax revenue to fund primary public safety needs.

Until all property owners -- commercial, business and non-resident as well as resident -- pay a fair share of that annual expense (half the General Fund budget), we will always be short of funds.

Where we would disagree would be in his statement that: “We grew with other people’s money!” Sales taxes paid by outsiders does not now nor ever has produced more than 10 to 11 percent of that revenue. Residents pay 90 percent of sales taxes and ultimately fund all of public safety as well.

Our second area of disagreement would be around his suggestion of doubling or tripling bureaucracy by creating Public Safety District(s) similar to those we had when our tax rate was the highest in the state.

There is no need for that, we have all the authority needed to initiate and approve a reasonable property tax to cover public safety funding and to simultaneously eliminate most, nearly all, of our current local sales tax.

What we do not and have not had is a Town Council with the integrity and intestinal fortitude to bring such a program forward and sell it to the voting public.

Who knows, maybe someday?