Fact Check: Do the mayor’s assertions about Phoenix’s progress stand up?

Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton’s State of the City speech contained several claims about city progress. Here are three of his major assertions and a dissection of their accuracy.

Issue: Pension spiking

What he said: “Together, we put the skids on a runaway pension system — fixing problems exposed by the economic downturn. Under the new rules, pension spiking is gone and we will save Phoenix taxpayers $830 million over the next 25 years.”

The facts: Pension spiking generally is seen as artificial inflation of a city employee’s income toward the end of a career to boost retirement benefits. While Phoenix made changes to eliminate common forms of pension spiking for police officers and firefighters, it didn’t go as far with civilian workers. General city employees still can spike using the cash-outs they receive upon retirement for unused sick- and vacation-leave time as long as it was accrued before the rules changed. Such payouts boost end-of-career compensation, a key factor in the formula used to calculate the annual pension benefit.

Bottom line: Phoenix has made changes to combat spiking, but Stanton was incorrect when he said the practice has stopped. Issue: Light rail What he said: “We know that a mile of light rail is cheaper than a mile of new freeway.”

The facts: Light rail costs an average of $87.4 million per mile for all construction costs, including land acquisition, according to the city’s Public Transit Department. Recent Arizona Department of Transportation freeway construction has cost from about $80 million to $90 million per mile, city Street Transportation Department Director Ray Dovalina told City Council last month. ADOT’s planned Loop 202 extension, for example, will cost $1.9 billion for 22 miles. That’s about $86 million per mile for land acquisition, construction and other costs, ADOT Spokesman Timothy Tait said.

Bottom line: Light-rail construction may be cheaper than freeway construction in some cases, but not all.

Issue: Biomedical Campus

What he said: “In 2013, the entire (Phoenix Biomedical Campus) produced an economic impact of $1.3 billion. And in just a decade, that number will grow to more than $3 billion annually.”

The facts: A report released late last year by consulting firm Tripp Umbach on the economic impact of the Phoenix Biomedical Campus downtown confirm Stanton’s claims. The report was commissioned by the University of Arizona College of Medicine Phoenix and the city, according to the University of Arizona.

Bottom line: Stanton is correct about the economic boost from the biomedical facilities.