Tulsa Looking At Two Tax Packages In 2015
Two major tax projects coming this year
By JARREL WADE World Staff Writer
Local voters may get to decide the fate of two major funding packages later in 2015, which has city leaders working hard to finish their proposals so voters have time to digest them.
“When we started in December of 2013, I remember thinking that maybe we were starting too early,” Councilor G.T. Bynum said about the council’s Arkansas River Infrastructure Task Force. “That’s ended up being a much longer process than I think any of us expected.”
The task force is expected to recommend an Arkansas River funding package for low-water dams and dam rehabilitation. Regional city leaders would be asking taxpayers for hundreds of millions to be put toward keeping water in the river.
The other anticipated funding package is a dedicated public safety tax proposed by Mayor Dewey Bartlett.
Jarred Brejcha, Bartlett’s chief of staff, is helping develop the proposal, which envisions asking voters for a 0.2 percent sales tax that would be directed toward police, fire and streets.