OPINION — Many of us came to Fountain Hills for the same reasons: A quieter life, a beautiful sunset and a chance to escape the high taxes and heavy burdens of the places we left behind.
That experience shapes how people think about local funding, and it's completely understandable. We've spent decades watching property taxes climb, the instinct to avoid new taxes here is not only natural – it's earned.
But Fountain Hills is facing a challenge that affects all of us, regardless of where we came from or how long we've lived here. Our town has been running for years on a model built almost entirely on retail sales tax. That worked when we were smaller and the costs lower, but it's becoming harder to maintain streets, public safety and basic services we all rely on without a broader, more stable foundation.
