The years of living off Other Peoples’ Money (OPM) through State, Highway, General Funds and local sales taxes are over. Those funding sources are insufficient to satisfy our present funding needs.

Since a previous Council disbanded the Fire District the town lost the revenue in Secondary tax to fund the Fire District; that’s $3.7 million dollars of the operating fund. The search for new revenue sources is quite limited because we are a town not a city. Attempts to restore the Fire District failed because the electorate voted no; so now we have a town with a meager work force with an electorate demanding the same lifestyle of the late 1990s and early 2000s.

One thing changed; at the Thursday night meeting, hosted by Councilman Art Tolis one of the naysayers declared that his street was crumbling and would support a bond issue for roads. Typical.

Here’s an option; let’s initiate a 7.5 million dollar Primary Property Tax with a 3 percent annual increase for contractual obligation increases if necessary to reduce the operating budget together with a 50 percent decrease in the food tax which would benefit everyone in town.

Why a Primary Property Tax? 50 percent of the Residential Real Estate Asset base and all Commercial Real Estate do not contribute to 50 percent of the operating budget. So the residents of Fountain Hills are paying for 100 percent of the cost of the operating budget while enjoying 50 percent of the benefit. Wouldn’t you like to use OPM for $3.75 million dollars of the budget? Would that be fair?

Think about it.