Reading the recent Fountain Hills First publication explaining the primary property tax, a few things came to mind.

The author(s) like to use the argument of “other cities” that have a primary property tax. Well, this should fall on deaf ears. Fountain Hills is not Scottsdale, Tempe or Chandler. Those cities are facing out of control property taxes that put enormous stress on people living on fixed incomes.

Perhaps the citizens of this town wish to keep their property taxes low. It is not “equitable” when only some citizens of the town have to continuously pay for services while others (renters) generally do not.

Another trick is to break down the costs to property owners based on averages, then calculate it down to only $1.32 per day. Cute – that is $482 per year on the average. The cost will be much higher for many properties valued at higher levels. If your current property tax bill is about $2,000 per year and you are hit with a $480 to $650 per year increase, you do the math. That will be a 20 to 30 percent increase in your total property tax bill. Doesn’t sound so small now, does it?

Oh, don’t forget, they will remove the measly $36 per year environmental fee if you just give them this enormous increase.

Keep your own money. Vote no on May 15.