Fountain Hills residents will soon be receiving their annual billing for the town’s environmental fee.

The bills come from AMS Billing Services in Sarasota, Fla. and town officials say some people may wonder about the legitimacy of the billing. It is legitimate.

The Town Council adopted the $36 per year fee in 2014 for implementation effective for 2016 and continuing each year. The funds are used to offset the costs of various regulations and permits required by the EPA, U.S. Clean Water Act and the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) that the town must comply with.

Programs that could be covered under the fee include street sweeping, dust control, dam inspections (the town has six dams under the jurisdiction of the Arizona Department of Water Resources it must maintain), storm water management and wash drainage maintenance.

There are also needs for on-call storm damage clean-up and providing citizens with an option of household hazardous waste disposal (paint, household chemicals, etc.). The fee is based on cost recovery only for these programs and there is no excess.

Some residents may receive more than one bill if they have more than one property in town. The billing was set up based on parcels rather than property owners, so each parcel gets a separate bill.

The town does not have primary property tax authority so the fee cannot be included in county tax bills. Also, while state law gives the town the authority to levy such fees, like it does local sales tax, state law in fact prohibits the town from asking citizens for even an advisory vote on such questions.

Voters in Fountain Hills will have the opportunity to vote on implementing a new primary property tax for the town in May this year. Council members have said that if the property tax is approved, council will move to eliminate the environmental fee.