Anna Thomasson, Town of Paradise Valley Town Council member

Photo provided by Anna Thomasson

During the Sept. 25 council meeting, your council began an important discussion about our financial future. Although the town is in excellent financial condition with a healthy strategic reserve and sufficient revenues to cover expenses, the Arizona state constitution limits how much we can spend each year – called the “expenditure limitation.”

If we choose to spend more than currently allowed, notably for capital projects, we can avoid exceeding  the expenditure limitation by financing those capital projects with low-interest bond financing. Alternatively, we can ask voters to approve a “capital projects accumulation fund,” where we set aside future revenues for specific capital projects. A third option is to ask voters to approve an increase to our expenditure limitation, allowing us to spend more money on any municipal expense – ongoing operations or capital projects.

Your council will make these decisions early next year and I encourage you to pay attention and speak up. As a staunch fiscal conservative, I already expressed my reluctance to increase the expenditure limitation, fearing it will make it too easy to spend money and grow government. I have yet to be convinced we need ever bigger budgets for ongoing town operations and believe we can fund needed capital projects through low-interest bond financing or earmarked future revenues in a capital projects accumulation fund. We will have more council discussions and I remain open-minded.

As I did this year, I will take a very active part in our budget and capital projects discussions, reviewing budget-to-actual expenses and analyzing our spending to prevent budget creep. I am committed to protecting our beautiful town and making sure we are always well-funded and able to weather any financial storm without imposing a property tax.

Let me know what you think:  athomasson@paradisevalleyaz.gov.

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