Skillicorn Paves the Way with Roads First Budget

Fountain Hills Councilman Allen Skillicorn Paves the Way with Roads First Budget

Fountain Hills, AZ – Fountain Hills Councilman Allen Skillicorn renewed his commitment to local residents by introducing his Roads First Budget for Fountain Hills, AZ at the May 2nd Town Meeting.

“Most politicians are big spenders; they push budgets and spending to the max at every opportunity,” Skillicorn said. “When I ran for town council, I made a promise to fix our roads without a tax hike and go through the budget line by line and that is exactly what I am doing.”

Arizona law requires a budget spending cap. Fountain Hills’ spending cap for Fiscal Year 2024 is $43,057,708. For the past five years Fountain Hills has been intentionally defunding roads and streets by shifting financial resources from road maintenance and improvements to raises, roundabouts, and lavish boondoggles.

At Tuesday’s meeting Councilman Skillicorn proposed and motioned to approve his Roads First Budget, which included $1,293,000 in cuts for a total of $41,807,000 in spending.

“The $1,293,000 would have been directed as a downpayment to fix our roads and prevent a future tax hike,” Skillicorn said. “Unfortunately, the Roads First Budget was not considered.”

At that same meeting, the mayor unveiled her behemoth $43,057,708 spending package. This status quo budget includes 7% raises, $50,000 for subsidies for the homeless, $237,000 for outdoor exercise machines, $2,400 dues for Maricopa Association of Governments, $250,000 to replace healthy trees, $535,000 for streetscape (whatever that is), and a half million dollars for a general funds spending spree, and more line items of excessive spending.

The council then voted 5-2 for the mayor’s ‘spend to the max’ budget. Councilmembers Toth and Skillicorn were the sole NO votes. The town has until June to pass the final budget, so this discussion is not over yet.

“Running a vibrant town and fixing the $50 Million road repair backlog means balancing wants and needs,” Skillicorn said. “That is the promise I made to the people. Cutting specific wasteful, unneeded, and unwanted projects would save $684,000. Freezing the general fund spending to 2023 levels saves another half million dollars. We could be addressing our infrastructure needs and improving our community’s future financial outlook instead of approving bloated, irresponsible budgets. I will not be deterred, and I will continue advancing robust and bold solutions to problems politicians have created in our community.”