The rollout of the new tax (fee) imposed by Mayor Linda Kavanagh and her city council is the worst political mess since the health care rollout! They have been working on implementing this new tax (fee) since 2007 and this is the best they can do?

This is the incompetence you get when you allow a political position to be filled by an anointed individual, not an elected official. Mayor Kavanagh has run unopposed for two terms and the result is this local government does not reflect the Fountain Hills voters’ priorities.

This fiasco has led to actions like imposing this new tax (fee) and creating a burden on the fixed income residents living in our community. The response from Town Manager, Grady Miller, is “we do have tools at our disposal to make people pay.” Would that be the revival of debtor’s prison, complete with pink underwear?

If, as stated in the recent article in our local paper, the current state law is all fees have to be the same, than this fee is illegal, not to mention immoral. Those least able to pay are being charged double or more.

This tax (fee) should be placed on hold until a policy can be put in place that makes this new tax fair for all citizens of Fountain Hills. Let’s take a lesson from the Town of Paradise Valley and take it to the state legislature; they do not like municipalities charging such fees.

What say you, State Senator John Kavanagh? Get out the vote in 2016.

(Editor’s note: Mayor Linda Kavanagh never supported the environmental fee and was one of three votes against it when the council adopted it in November 2014. Council members Cecil Yates and Henry Leger were the other ‘no’ votes.)