I think it is fair to say Fountain Hills is a nice place to live. We have nice parks and recreation facilities, a spectacular fountain, good police and fire services, a good library, a fascinating museum, a beautiful Community Center, good schools, several good restaurants, increasing choices in retail and low taxes; according to the Maricopa County Treasurer website, among the lowest in the county.
The largest problem facing the town is the lack of sustainable revenues to maintain all the things we like about the town, a problem that is growing worse due to increasing costs for services like police and fire/emergency and a lack of distributed state funds because we are not growing as fast as other communities in the county and state. Our properly audited financial reports bear this out.
What I do not understand is that while we make use of these services and tell all our friends how nice it is to live in a place like Fountain Hills, we rear up and resist any and all efforts to improve revenues. One of the noisiest complaints is that none of the efforts has a “sunset clause” and they are asking too much. I am here to tell you that the costs to maintain what we have also do not have any time limit imposed. The need is permanent, and the cost? It is what it is.
The administration has cut everywhere possible; there is nothing more to cut and the longer we put off solving the problem the worse and more expensive it gets. I will offer an analogy: None of us is happy when we’re out to lunch with a group and some do not pay their share. Is paying our fair share to maintain our lovely town any different?
