The 2018 election season looks to be an extremely busy one here in Fountain Hills. We’ve got a primary property tax to consider in May and, come this fall, we’ll be voting on a new mayor and several town council seats.

We should have known things were going to get hectic when several potential candidates stated their plans to run during the fall of 2017. That might be the earliest any local candidate has thrown their hat into the ring, the result of which will be a year’s worth of coverage and discussion by the time all is said and done.

For our part, we plan to cover the issues facing Fountain Hills in regards to these elections as we always have. If something newsworthy happens, you’ll find it in these pages. If your neighbors have thoughts they wish to share in the form of a letter to the editor (abiding by our policy, of course), we’ll run it. It may not always be pretty and certainly nobody will agree with everything that’s said, but that’s how these things go.

While the council and mayoral elections are still months away (petitions still can’t be filed for several months), the item moving to the forefront at this point is the proposed primary property tax. We have several stories brewing that aim to make it clear, in black and white, what the passage or failure of this tax will mean for Fountain Hills. We now have an official citizens’ committee working in support of the measure and various residents actively speaking out against it.

Again, we’re not all going to agree on everything; but these conversations, these disagreements, are important. Being educated about these elections is equally important, which is why we encourage everyone to read up, drop into meetings, ask questions and, when the time comes, attend forums.

Elections being held this year will have an unquestionable impact on the future of Fountain Hills. The beauty of politics is that, even if things don’t turn out the way we wanted, we’re all given the same opportunity to participate. We encourage you all to take advantage of that opportunity.