Fountain Hills is a unique community with 85 percent residential properties. Large portions of our town are not devoted to business, commercial or tourist projects like surrounding towns. People live here for what we are.

Why are some people pushing to change what we are? Why is every new development or tourist gimmick touted as the solution to put Fountain Hills on the road to fiscal health?

Why? Because we won’t pay for what we have. We want others to pay. Rather than approve a property tax to support our town, roads and decaying infrastructure, we want new development and tourist projects to save us.

It’s been tried before. Numerous projects were the ones that would assure our town’s fiscal health – Target, Eagle Mountain, Copperwynd, Fry’s, FireRock, Eagles Nest. They haven’t saved us for the simple reason that once they are built, they add to the strain on our town’s infrastructure.

There are no property taxes that come from these developments to pay for that burden.

We should ask: Will our town change if all the development and tourist ideas being considered come to fruition? Will they change what we are? Will they affect our quality of life? Without a property tax, are new developments just another drain on our town’s infrastructure?

New commercial and tourist projects might change Fountain Hills, but they won’t solve our problems. Scottsdale has 35 percent of its property devoted to such projects, generating millions in sales taxes. Even with these projects, Scottsdale has a primary property tax to pay for its infrastructure.

We can follow sensible fiscal policies, or we can follow the failed developments-will-save-us policies. New development and tourist projects will change what we are. We might even become another Scottsdale. But without other fiscal solutions, new projects alone won’t solve our problems.