At the risk of being tarred and feathered, or worse, I will go on record and say it is time we demand the Town Council to take the heat and work towards implementing a fair and equitable property tax and lower the sales tax that now pays for police and fire protection.

Before you get angry and say “but they will keep raising the tax and put us in the poor house,” consider that the existing sales tax can be increased without a public vote as could the environmental fee.

The property tax could and should be tied to a town vote before increase and we would join the 15, out of 23, communities in Maricopa County who have a city/town property tax.

Let’s face it; the amount of our current County and State property taxes is very small in comparison to those in the East and Midwest. I have lived here for twenty three years and my taxes are virtually the same now as they were our first year and are less than 25 percent of what we paid in Wisconsin. We all want and need the level services expected in a first rate and beautiful community such as Fountain Hills and we must understand that we will have to pay for them.

There have been several previous attempts to implement a property tax and all have resulted in a failure and voting out of office those who favored it. The time has come to demand the town council do the job of solving community problems, for which they were elected, and go forward with a property tax. I will support them in every way I can and I will campaign against them if they refuse to try. Won’t you please join me?