How Do You Feel About The One Penny Sales Tax Proposal?

[godboko71]

Great posts.  I wish all you guys were on city council.

Did anyone read Tom Adelson's ideas in the latest Urban Tulsa?  He made some good points about merging similar systems like IT department, HR, etc at the county level to save money for all the cities and more easily share resources.

That would be great but I can't see it ever happening. Seems like City and county fights to much of late. Then again we can hope. Though I would like to see audits done and a cost/savings analysis done before we approve any service merger with the county.

[Conan71]

Great posts.  I wish all you guys were on city council.

Did anyone read Tom Adelson's ideas in the latest Urban Tulsa?  He made some good points about merging similar systems like IT department, HR, etc at the county level to save money for all the cities and more easily share resources.

I think it's a great idea and there's at least one county commissioner in favor of merging systems where practical.  One problem they are going to run into is opposition the bureaucrats who have become accustomed to running their own little fiefdoms who might be worried they are going to be consolidated out. 

All fine and good with me.  Gov't needs to identify core services it should be supplying to citizens, eliminate ones they don't need to be supplying, and figuring out how to deliver the necessary ones more efficiently.

[Conan71]

That would be great but I can't see it ever happening. Seems like City and county fights to much of late. Then again we can hope. Though I would like to see audits done and a cost/savings analysis done before we approve any service merger with the county.

Just don't let Staubach & Co do the survey.

[Gaspar]

Great posts.  I wish all you guys were on city council.

Did anyone read Tom Adelson's ideas in the latest Urban Tulsa?  He made some good points about merging similar systems like IT department, HR, etc at the county level to save money for all the cities and more easily share resources.

Great Idea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But that's the problem.  It's a simple common sense approach to a problem.  The city could easily save millions, the city and county would both benefit making Tulsa more marketable and competitive with OKC, and cities in surrounding states by improving systems regionally, and underused, HIGH PAID resources would be better allocated.

No one loses, and that's the hiccup.  We have some counselors with WIN/LOSE mentalities.  How do we get around that? 

[shadows]

Seems there could be a problem in consolidating city/county governments.  It  has already been tried and the legislation overturned by the court.  It is an interesting thought as the city operates under charter by the state and the county is established by the Oklahoma state constitution.  It would be very easy for the state to delete their approval of the city charter and the county government take over the obligation of running the city if that is what the citizens want.

Posters it seems some derive their incomes directly of indirectly from government want the city to be given the Midas touch.  Until the city receives it wouldn't it be more realistic to prepare to live within the present income and quit trying to compared it to other cities?     

[MDepr2007]

Nothing changes with staying on topic in this place does it 

[Red Arrow]

Nothing changes with staying on topic in this place does it 

Change we can believe in.

[Conan71]

Change we can believe in.

[Nik]

I posted this in another thread but didn't get any comments on it. Maybe its a bad idea. I also emailed this to Henderson, but haven't received a response and I'm not expecting one. I just feel the city wouldn't support a full penny, hence my compromise.

I was actually coming here to post exactly this (raising taxes), but it appears somebody else had the same idea. Here are the current sales taxes for Tulsa as well as some suburbs and other large Oklahoma cities:

(these figures have been provides by others in the thread, but I had already typed them up before I saw them)
Tulsa: 3%
Oklahoma City: 3.875%
Broken Arrow: 3%
Sand Springs: 3.5%
Jenks: 3%
Bixby: 3.5%
Glenpool: 4%
Norman: 3.5%
Owasso: 3%
(source: http://www.tax.ok.gov/publicat/copos/copo1Q10.pdf)

Tulsa had $15.8M in sales tax revenue in 12/09, 14.5% lower than the 12/08, or $2.7M. My math may be simplified or off, but a .5% increase should get us to about $18.4M, <$.1M short of 12/08's revenue.

I would propose that the City raises the sales tax to 3.5% for ONE YEAR. At the end of that one year, hopefully the economy will have recovered mostly and the sales tax will be dropped back to 3%. However, I have another provision. Any revenue greater than the previous period goes into a rainy day fund. So for instance, (I'm making up numbers here) if the revenue for 7/10 (after the .5% increase) is $19M and the revenue for 7/09 was $18.2M, that $.8M difference goes into the rainy day fund. The rainy day fund could be used if the economy hasn't fully recovered after the sales tax expiration and still forces the Tulsa government to live within the budgets that were used to and gives the city more time to correct any wasteful spending.

[shadows]

A one cent sales tax increase would not only be a most regressive tax for the  poor and unemployed but would have a negative effect on the actual production of income for the city.  The 66 million dollars is not rat holed waiting for someone to buy things so they can pay sales taxes on it.  This removes the $66 million dollars from their purchasing powers and diverts it into the coffers of  city who will redistribute it haven been taken from the working poor to be placed into the hands of the elite of the city employees.

The 66M dollars is not in free fall but is taken from the declining funds by inflation that the working poor and retires need to survive. History teaches us this is the catalyst that has been used for revolts.  The reduction in the city sales tax receipts and the increase in the sales taxes in the burbs should be a  signal that the retail industries are moving into the burbs.

Tulsa should rearrange their priorities to supporting the citizens instead of funneling more money into the burbs.  Until this storm has passed the city should make arrangements to live within its income.  

[Breadburner]

A one cent sales tax increase would not only be a most regressive tax for the  poor and unemployed but would have a negative effect on the actual production of income for the city.  The 66 million dollars is not rat holed waiting for someone to buy things so they can pay sales taxes on it.  This removes the $66 million dollars from their purchasing powers and diverts it into the coffers of  city who will redistribute it haven been taken from the working poor to be placed into the hands of the elite of the city employees.

The 66M dollars is not in free fall but is taken from the declining funds by inflation that the working poor and retires need to survive. History teaches us this is the catalyst that has been used for revolts.  The reduction in the city sales tax receipts and the increase in the sales taxes in the burbs should be a  signal that the retail industries are moving into the burbs.

Tulsa should rearrange their priorities to supporting the citizens instead of funneling more money into the burbs.  Until this storm has passed the city should make arrangements to live within its income.  

[Conan71]

Hey, that's not from that night up in Sedalia is it?  Aaaah to be young, stupid, and 19 again.

[SXSW]

Can the city not raise property taxes?  I would be more for that than a sales tax.  Or maybe, as Councilman Turner pointed out, we can raise the fees associated with hotels/motels, rental cars, the BOK Center, and other city-owned facilities.  I think everyone here agrees we need to do something to better fund public safety so when the next economic downturn hits we are more prepared.

[gooberak]

I wouldn't vote for a sales tax. It's a matter of principle. They've been so irresponsible from Taylor on - and now we're to be punished for that? H no. Find another way. But - Find - another way. None of our cops / fire fighters should be punished for this either.

[YoungTulsan]

What are the options on property tax?  Can the city levee property tax for the general fund that easily?

Frankly I am becoming horribly concerned about the streets.  None of the projects mapped out on the streets tax plan seem to have started.  The city has admitted to raiding money from the pothole fund to keep things running the past few weeks.  Meanwhile in the winter madness the streets have gone frighteningly fast from a D+ to an F-.  There aren't enough people filling the potholes up with the little black pebbles - and the little black pebbles aren't doing anything - they keep getting washed out and littering the streets.  Instead of the right lane being the driving lane and the left being the passing lane, the right lane is the pothole lane.  Soon the left lane will be the pothole lane and the right lane will be closed until further notice.

We sorely need to do an "all of the above" approach of keeping current cuts in place, making further cuts, wiping out inefficiencies, AND raising new revenue streams from multiple sources.