I find it very disheartening that so many of my fellow citizens find it so objectionable to pay for the things we all share and use as a community.

Bonds are a way to borrow money to provide for things like new or rebuilt streets. When you borrow money, you pay for the privilege. Thus, the work done costs more than if you just pay for it from existing revenues, i.e. from a property tax. Bonds cannot be used for maintenance like repaving without completely rebuilding a street.

Fees are charged per parcel, so the owner of a multi-million dollar home used two months a year pays the same as a full-time resident owner of a modest home. If you are wealthy, this sounds good. If you are like most of us, maybe not.

A primary property tax is a method used by most cities and towns to provide a reliable income so that the municipality can plan and function and maintain the assets that it owns and manages. This allows for the collection of tax according to the value of the property. With such a tax, the owners of all the empty commercial properties in our town will get to help maintain the town. Many of these properties are owned by out-of-state real estate investment trusts. They don’t really care much about the town and generally will not price leases to encourage occupancy. The trust managers just use them as losses.

Should the town find that a property tax generated too much revenue, the council could easily reduce the sales tax, which would benefit all of us and encourage more local spending, maybe even encourage businesses to open in Fountain Hills.