The response to my letter urging the town to consider a local property tax contained many incorrect or misleading assumptions.

First and foremost, I did not threaten the Town Council, merely a strong request for them to find the revenues needed to restore and maintain our town’s infrastructure and level of services we once enjoyed.

The present town government has done a great job of making dramatic budget cuts and making it seem like nothing has changed, but it has.

I ask if you have tried to conduct business at City Hall on a Friday? Have you noticed the orange warning cones guarding a damaged storm drain on Palisades near the Medical Plaza for the past several months? Did you read in The Times that there is a non-compliance rate of nearly 80 percent because we have only one person handling all code compliance matters? Have you checked the line item by line item reductions in the current budget?

The Town’s contributions to the local food bank, Boys & Girls Club, and other worthy town entities have been dramatically reduced.

The real issue here is that it is getting worse every day. Our infrastructure is fast aging from lack of timely repairs. State shared revenues are predicted to diminish due to rapid growth in other communities, thereby dividing the pot by a larger number. Unfunded mandates continue to be handed down.

To wrap up this edition of my appeal for increasing and stabilizing the town’s revenues, I have to say that Scottsdale did not increase its sales tax rate because of seniors. It has had a local property tax for many years and, by the way, I too am a senior, veteran and living on a fixed income. Folks ,this is a serious problem. Let’s work together and fix it.