Surprise council approves intent to lower primary property tax rate, sets adoption hearing for June 17

The Surprise City Council on June 3 approved a resolution expressing the city’s intent to levy a primary property tax rate of 0.5534 per $100 of assessed valuation and to levy a secondary property tax rate of 0.388 per $100, and set the final property-tax-adoption hearing for June 17, 2025.

City staff presented the rates and a brief breakdown of how primary-tax revenue is allocated. Staff said the primary rate would decrease from the current 0.5693 to 0.5534 per $100 of assessed valuation. Using an example in the presentation, staff said a homeowner with a $300,000 assessed limited property value would pay about $166 for the year under the proposed rates.

The council opened the public hearing on the levy; no members of the public requested to speak and the council closed the hearing. Mayor Sarter, after noting the difficulty of balancing community needs and taxes, said she was “proud to work with this council and with staff to be able to lower the property tax, a little bit just to provide some relief to our residents.”

A motion to approve Resolution No. 2025-70 was made and seconded; the clerk announced the vote as unanimous. The council’s action at this meeting was an intent-to-levy vote that schedules the formal property-tax adoption for the June 17, 2025 meeting.

Next steps: staff will present the formal property-tax adoption ordinance and related calculations at the June 17 meeting as scheduled.