Dear Friends and Neighbors,

I hope to see you at my community chat tomorrow, Saturday August 14 at 1 p.m. at Taylor’s Cafe(5053 N 44th St).  I also wanted to send you details about a few upcoming events and some bicycle safety tips for you and your family from the Phoenix Police Department.  I hope all of your families had/have apleasant transition into the new school year.  As always if you wouldlike my office to send information through out e-mail newsletter about an event, meeting, or anything else in the city of Phoenix please let me know. 

Councilman Sal DiCiccio and community members unhappy with the Phoenix Parks Board new parking fee at mountain preserves are mounting a public pressure campaign to reject the new charge.

DiCiccio, District 6 staff members and volunteers will be passing out fliers at the affected preserve parking areas this weekend urging hikers and others upset with the new fee to help rally support to kill it. Alex Tauber, a north Phoenix neighborhood activist, and other volunteers, also will be passing out fliers and encouraging like-minded citizens to register their protest. (Citizens may do so by emailing council.district.6@phoenix.gov or calling 602-262-7491).

Dear Friends and neighbors,

You and your family have been forced to pay, through higher fees and taxes, for Phoenix’s unsustainable costs and inability to face its responsibility to holdthem down. I have officially requested a list and amount of all tax and fee hikes the City has imposed on you and will send it to you as soon as the city provides it.

Below is alink to a column I wrote for the Arizona Republic that appeared in the June 9, 2010 edition. In it, I lay out four reforms that would solve the city’s budget issues forever by making Phoenix take responsibility for its fiscal management rather than foist it off on citizens and businesses.

I was toldwhen I first started this battle that there would be a penalty for doing so. Gravy trains do not take well to imposed brakes, and the king bridles atmention of the naked truth.

Since I have been back on the Phoenix City Council, I have been fighting for the cityto recognize that its labor cost – at an average $100,000 per worker – is unsustainable and that the bill can’t be paid forever by constantly stacking tax increases after fee hikes on the backs of ratepayers and businesses.

We now aretold that a recall and smear movement against me are in the wings, financed and organized by the civilian unions that reap the government largesse funded by you taxpayers and businesses.

Taxpayers Win, No Tax Rate Hike Ok’d

Office of Councilman Sal DiCiccio, District 6

602-262-7491

Council.district.6@phoenix.gov

Phoenix taxpayers earned a great (and rare) win on Tuesday when the Phoenix City Council voted unanimously to hold the property tax rate and to make up the expected deficit with spending cuts, innovations and structural changes.

“This is a huge victory for Phoenix taxpayers, but it’s only one step on the long road to fiscal stability for Phoenix,” said Councilman Sal DiCiccio, who supported holding down the rate. City staff originally had recommended a series of secondary property tax rate increases in out years that would have meant higher property tax rates in the city from 2013 until 2028.

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

Your property tax is about to go up.  In the last four months, the City of Phoenix has imposed on you and your family:

• A new food tax (up $50 million per year)
• Increased water rates ($30 million per year; a 40% increase over 5 years)
• Increased sewer rates ($3 million this year)
• Increased fees on small business

And now the City of Phoenix wants to raise your property tax rate, even though your property values have gone down.

All of these fees and taxes were imposed to afford an average cost of $100,000 per city employee – that’s for all 14,000 employees.  This could all be fixed if Phoenix simply would restructure operations.  My office has asked Phoenix to address the high cost of labor at City Hall.  Instead, the city has chosen the easy route of raising taxes and fees on you, the public; all of which I opposed.

At 2 p.m. May 25, Phoenix will consider raising your property tax rate under the guise of a “floating rate.”  That means your taxes will “float” up.

I need your help.  Phoenix taxpayers need your help.  Please call or e-mail my office and let me know we don’t need anymore taxes.  I will pass your information along to the rest of the Council.

Please help get the word out and pass this information along.

Respectfully,

Sal DiCiccio
Phoenix Councilman
Council.district.6@phoenix.gov
200 W. Washington St. 11th Floor
Phoenix , AZ 85003
(602) 262-7491