Did Phoenix lie about raising property taxes?

THE MEDIA: Online.

WHO SAID IT: Sal DiCiccio. OFFICE: Phoenix councilman, District 6.

PARTY: Republican.

THE COMMENT: “BREAKING: ANOTHER TAX INCREASE COMING. Phoenix politicians want to raise your taxes AGAIN to pay for their pet projects, even though they’ve been promising since January that there would be no increases this year. Is this incompetence or intentional dishonesty by city staff?” And: “Liar Liar Pants on Fire: Phoenix politicians are quietly trying to raise your property taxes again, even though they’ve been promising for months that there would be no increases this year.”

THE FORUM: Posts to Twitter on June 4 and 5.

WHAT WE’RE LOOKING AT: Whether Phoenix is raising property taxes this year, and whether former Mayor Greg Stanton and the City Manager’s Office misled taxpayers about the increase.

ANALYSIS: Less than a week after Stanton resigned to run for Congress, DiCiccio took to Twitter to call out “Phoenix politicians” for what he said was a lie about an increase that Phoenicians will be paying on their property taxes.

Sam Stone, DiCiccio’s chief of staff, said in a phone interview that the councilman was specifically referring to the former mayor and to City Manager Ed Zuercher.

In the June 4 post on Twitter, DiCiccio included a picture of the Truth in Taxation notice the city is required to publish that said if the budget were approved, the average Phoenix property owner would see a 2 percent increase in their property-tax bill.

Regarding the first part of the claim, DiCiccio is correct that the average Phoenix property owner will see an increase in his or her property-tax bill.

The process for changing propertytax rates starts in February with the City Manager’s Office determining the revenue required from property taxes to fulfill Phoenix’s total revenue needs. The office then projects how property values will change and sets a rate accordingly.

Then, the Maricopa County Assessor’s Office determines the exact change in property values, within certain limits set by law. This year, the office determined that the average property value increased by 3.5 percent in Phoenix.

From there the City Manager’s Office adjusts the tax rate based on the exact value increase and presents it as part of the budget proposal. That happened on May 8.

This year, because of the increase in property value, the city dropped the primary property-tax rate from $1.3359 per $100 of assessed value to $1.3163, a decrease of nearly 1.5 percent.

Despite the decrease in the rate, the increased property value would still leave the average Phoenix property owner paying 2 percent more in property taxes this year.

Stone said this year’s change constitutes a tax increase, despite a reduction in the tax rate.

“Let’s say that I make $50,000 this year and $50,000 next year — my income doesn’t change no matter what the price of my house does,” Stone said. “Because the house value has gone up, but I haven’t taken in any more money personally ... the percentage of my money that the city is getting goes up.”

In addition to the contention that taxes increased, DiCiccio also claimed that Stanton and the City Manager’s Office lied about whether that would happen.

A second tweet sent by DiCiccio on June 5 accused “Phoenix politicians” of being a “liar liar pants on fire,” and linked to a video of Stanton talking with Jeff Barton, the Phoenix budget and research director, at a Jan. 30, 2018, City Council policy session.

At the meeting, Barton told the City Council that the budget was projected to stay balanced for the next five years without a need to cut services or increase taxes.

The video clip in DiCiccio’s tweet showed Stanton confirming with Barton that his recommendation at that time was to have “no revenue increases and zero service cuts” for the 2018-2019 budget.