Seventy cops, 16 dispatchers, 34 firefighters, 29 street personnel. Tulsa Mayor Dewey Bartlett met with the city’s public safety task force to go over how two-tenths of a cent will do all that.
Get ready for some numbers. Lots of numbers. The mayor’s office came up with revenue projections for the next 15 years, assuming a sales tax annual growth rate of 1.5 percent.
Bartlett said in fiscal year 2018, "we're projecting about $15,250,000 on an annual basis. The fifth year, 2021, would be a little less than $16 million. Year 10, fiscal year 2026, a little more than $17 million, and year 15 would be approximately $18,500,000."
There will be a reserve funded by carryover and 10 percent of annual collections. It’s to cover unforeseeable events.
"For example, if we had a fire truck that was destroyed by a fire, or had some terrible accident, things like that, that happened," Bartlett said. "These pieces of equipment cost several hundred thousand dollars, up to $1 million each."
The mayor went through his funding proposal projections department by department. Police account for the largest chunk of spending, ranging from $5 million in FY 2018 to more than $11 million in 2030.
Bartlett said that will even cover new cars for all those new cops.
"All of this 15 year period does reflect not only the initial purchase of the equipment, but also the replacement vehicles that would be brought into it," he said.
The 911 center was straightforward: 16 new dispatchers at a cost of $890,000 dollars the first full fiscal year, eventually growing to almost $1.2 million in 2031.
The fire department will cost more than $5 million in each of the first three full years of sales tax collections. That drops off after the city finishes paying $3 million a year toward the second phase of the fire training center.
"The five-year mark, we're assuming $2,800,000 approximately, 10-year about $3.5 million, year 15, $4,473,000," Bartlett said.
For streets, spending fluctuates from a low of $2.4 million to a high of just over $3 million, largely depending on whether new signal equipment needs to be purchased. Bartlett recapped starting with year one.
"The cost for the police improvements, fire, streets, 911 system, etc., would be approximately $13,600,000," Bartlett said. "Year five, $12,677,000. Year 10, a little less than $17.5 million, and year 15, about $19,500,000."
Councilors did have questions. It was asked more than once whether Bartlett sees this as a temporary measure or a permanent one.
"We've seen over … the state of Oklahoma, some have made it permanent, some have made it temporary, and I think good results in both instances," he said.
Councilor David Patrick pointed out taxes are the people’s money, and they will decide where it goes. The Vision 2025 sales tax expires at the end of 2016, and the goal is to have something on the ballot in time for this proposed two-tenths of a cent tax to take effect Jan. 1, 2017.
