The two big disputes between the Town and the District are fire hydrants and an extra fire company. If the District has its way and isn’t compelled to install hydrants (at least not on Gilbert’s amortization schedule, which is the real issue), that doesn’t mean Gilbert taxpayers will have to pay for hydrants, it just means there won’t be hydrants. Again, no subsidizing going on there.

As for the fire company, Gilbert is asking the District to pay the entire start-up costs. However, Gilbert’s own data show that the islands would only account for 2% of the capacity of a fire company. Plus, Gilbert Fire Department is already falling short on their 4:00 average response time goal (currently at 4:18). That means that Gilbert taxpayers should already be paying for a new fire company even before you add in service to the islands. Clearly, what should happen here is that Gilbert should pay 98% of the new company, District 2%. I think it would be reasonable to assume more resources would be required in the islands because of the lack of hydrants, so you could even scale up the District share, say to 4 or 5%. Either way, if Gilbert got its way, then the county islanders would actually be subsidizing the Town of Gilbert.

Thus, there is zero cause for concern that Town residents will end up subsidizing the county islands, regardless of the make-up of the new tax panel. Furthermore, the District has proposed a year-to-year recalculation of costs, compared to a 5-year fixed plan from Gilbert. So, under the District plan, it will be possible to renegotiate compensation should new evidence arise regarding the cost of fire service.

I disagree that the District would be hostile to new Gilbert proposals. Gilbert has made one proposal and refused to compromise at all; any movement on Gilbert’s part would likely be received with open arms, even if just as a basis for continued negotiations.