Attention, Town of Fountain Hills. The residents voted no on your fourth attempt for a primary property tax.

I attended meetings, read the newspaper, signs, talked to residents and used my background in accounting to make my decision. In regards to claims stating property values will decline, property values declined nationally due to a recession, not property taxes. Using common sense, property values will decline if the property taxes are too high.

A resident mentioned the $121 million in the reserve budget and asked why the town doesn’t use those funds. The town stated that is budgeted for other things and can’t be used for anything else. Budgets change annually depending on what’s needed and borrowing from other budgets is common. The bottom line, annual figure can’t be exceeded.

If this new tax was to pay for first responders, why did the town start building the new fire station before the vote? It was mentioned we are 20 years into a 30-year liner on the fountain. Why isn’t there a reserve fund for two-thirds of those costs? All residents I’ve spoken with feel we had plenty of first responder stations and are angry with the waste of existing commercial buildings.

I am from Michigan (one of the 10 highest property tax states) and one property tax covers everything Fountain Hills’ current tax covers, plus what the proposed tax would cover and environmental fee, trash/recycling, and additional winter staff. Two property taxes would give the town two taxes to raise every year.

When the town was asked if they have a contingency plan, if the tax is voted down, they answered no. Perhaps we should hire a town management company to train our town management on how to budget.