Thanks, Dennis, for your letter concerning educating “us” townfolk about how and where the money comes from. But when I talk to my friends around the country and they ask me how I like Fountain Hills, I tell them, “Well the city doesn’t provide water, sewer, trash, police or fire protection, but they do a good job with giving other folks lots of work preparing useless studies to do without any competitive bids!”

Also, the signs. I understand it was a past tax, but it’s an ongoing, current condition with how funds and problems are treated in this town. Why don’t the business owners form an association to pay ($95,000) for the signs to help market their trade area? Other places have great success without involving a government entity that simply pays too much for anything and without any extra thought of other people’s money.

We need to think out of the box to solve problems instead of kneejerk reaction of raising taxes. Now can we talk about doing the opposite with the talk of taxes, like lowering them or having tax-free days to bring more Valley people up to Fountain Hills to shop and eat at our wonderful restaurants? From this you will find more people that want to live here and work here. Taxing people more will be a bad death spiral for the whole community.