A letter written in the February 14 Fountain Hills Times says Safford, Texas, is a city about the same size as Fountain Hills (pop 18,000) that has no property tax and yet seems to be doing just fine. The writer implies that Safford could be a model for Fountain Hills.

But here’s “the rest of the story.” Safford calls itself a “bedroom community” lying next to a big city, but here are some big differences between Safford and our town:

*Unlike Fountain Hills, an interstate runs through Safford giving its businesses excellent market access to the Huston metropolitan area.

*Unlike Fountain Hills, it hosts a significant number of commercial, manufacturing, retail, service and wholesale industries which pay sales and franchise taxes to the city.

*Unlike Fountain Hills, 50,000 workers come into the city five days a week to work in these businesses, which explains how it generates so must sales tax from stores and restaurants.

*Unlike Fountain Hills, Safford boasts 15 business parks, 19 hotels and motels (bed tax), plus one significant shopping center.

*Unlike Fountain Hills, it hosts major operations of UPS, Tyco and several valve manufacturing concerns.

*Unlike Fountain Hills, it has level land that lends itself to intense commercial development.

Clearly, Safford is a unique and wonderful story, but as you can see it holds no lessons for Fountain Hills. Even if we wanted it to be, Fountain Hills can never be like Safford, Texas.

To save our town, vote yes for the primary property tax.