Some Town Council members want to explore legislative and other possibilities for bringing additional public safety monies into town coffers.

With new revenues coming in, then more existing General Fund money could be designated for other municipal uses, most likely street maintenance.

Approximately 52 percent of the General Fund is taken up by public safety contracts – law enforcement and medical emergency and fire services.

The issue was brought up as a “discussion only” item at the May 7 meeting at the behest of Vice Mayor Dennis Brown and Councilmen Cecil Yates and Alan Magazine.

While some discussion centered on drafting proposed legislation allowing the formation of a public safety district or a new type of community facilities district, Magazine brought up the idea of a “public safety assessment” that could be approved by a council vote only.

There has been discussion for several years about the fact that since there is no town property tax for operating funds, the owners of commercial properties and winter visitors enjoy year-round fire protection for their structures but do not directly pay for those services on a year-round basis.

The town’s General Fund is primarily financed by a combination of state-shared revenues and sales tax monies, which are subject to economic fluctuations.

Any property taxes assessed by the town at this time are dedicated to paying off voter-approved bonds.

Magazine said an assessment, similar to the environmental runoff fee implemented by the council last year, could be applied equally to each parcel of land in Fountain Hills.

Magazine even suggested the environmental fee could be dropped and instead a new fee be approved that would cover the environmental expenses as well as some public safety costs.

“We are facing a $700,000 deficit next year,” Magazine said, adding that amount would have to be carved out of the budget.

“I just don’t like where we are as a town and our fiscal situation.”

Magazine said a fee of $114 per parcel, for example, would likely raise between $1.6 million and $1.7 million for the town.

“The town has serious problems when it comes to the budget,” Magazine later told The Times. “I can’t sit back and watch the town continue the way it’s going. I don’t know what else to do. The town has been cutting for years.

“It will get worse and worse.”

Meanwhile, Magazine said public safety costs to continue to increase without a dedicated source of funding to pay for them.

“We’ve cut staff by 50 percent and we should be spending much more money on our roads,” he added.

Town Attorney Andrew McGuire said west-side cities have been grappling with the same public safety issue for several years.

The Town of Paradise Valley enacted a fire service fee based on property valuation, but the Arizona Legislature then passed a bill banning other municipalities from doing the same.

What Magazine is proposing would be a flat fee – not based on valuation or assessment or size/type of structure – but McGuire said such action would likely catch the attention of some lawmakers and the Arizona Tax Research Association.

“I don’t believe we would need new legislation to pass such a (flat) fee,” McGuire told The Times.

“It wouldn’t be difficult to determine a parcel-by-parcel breakdown of the cost across the entire town for fire service.

“The fee would be based upon the cost to the town spread over all who could potentially receive that service…

“Towns are authorized to charge fees for services they provide. They do it for other things. It just hasn’t been done yet for fire service.”

McGuire said many Arizona cities and towns face the same issue – finding a stable source of revenue for costly services such as police and fire protection – without having to rely on fickle sales tax revenues.

“The cost of providing these services is not going down, and sales taxes are not going up in sufficient amounts to make them feel comfortable,” McGuire said of municipalities in general.

McGuire told the council, “You could equate a fee to having the (fire) service available at all times to all properties.

“But there are no guarantees the Legislature won’t kill that opportunity, either.”

The council stopped short of giving any direction to staff regarding a revenue-enhancing idea or approaching the Legislature to have a bill floated in early 2016.