Can we trust the council to spend property tax money as promised?

After talking with dozens of people, from fellow citizens to business owners, sales clerks and many of my senior friends, I continue to hear concerns about how the $7M property tax will be spent. As you may know, these dollars are targeted for roads, police/fire ever -increasing costs, replacement of the environmental fee and preserving the town’s assets–such as buildings, programs, parks, and many deferred maintenance needs.

Our town council is keenly aware of public scrutiny when money is spent on any projects, initiatives or improvements. To help maintain the public trust, our town manager and town finance director have committed to give quarterly updates beginning in Q3 and Q4 of this year showing where dollars are being spent from the primary property tax fund.

As evidence that our tax dollars are already spent efficiently, Fountain Hills has achieved the second-to-lowest cost expense per citizen to operate the town of the 10 nearby communities. Queen Creek is the lowest. That shows me our town leaders have worked really hard to cut expenses before having to resort to the proposed tax.

Unlike the property taxes we pay Maricopa County, where very little is returned to us, every dollar raised from the primary property tax will be used only in Fountain Hills.

I firmly believe that we enjoy what we have in our wonderful town today is because of the decisions our past leaders have made. Some weren’t always popular, but they were the right decisions at the right time and I have a lot of confidence that our current leaders will do the same.