City of Tulsa officials started talks about next year’s city budget at Wednesday's mayor-council retreat.
Mayor G.T. Bynum’s priorities will be three C’s: cops, compensation and cash reserves. Bynum said that means continuing current levels of police recruiting, making city salaries competitive and putting some money away before the next downturn.
"Everybody looks really smart as it relates to budgeting until we have a fiscal crunch, and all of a sudden, you're talking about laying people off," Bynum said. "The best way to avoid that in those moments of financial downturn are to prepare for it when your economy is steady and smooth like it is right now."
The current budget covers three police academies and increased employee pension and health insurance funding.
In their early budget work, the mayor and council are prioritizing a two-year, roughly 100-point action plan they think will make Tulsa a world-class city. Councilor Blake Ewing said recent, heavy investment in road projects won’t attract new residents.
"If you look at the way we've spent out money, we've communicated the most important things to us were smooth roads and short commutes, and I think there's more to a city than that," Ewing said.
Ewing suggested Tulsa emulate high-growth cities like Austin and Denver by encouraging the development of destinations within city limits — think Brookside, Cherry Street or Kendall Whittier but grander.
City Council Chair David Patrick, first elected in 1996, said one of their top priorities should be pressing state leaders to allow cities to run on more than just sales tax revenue.
"The city's improved [dramatically] over the last 20 years. It's just that without the funding, it's going to take another 20 or 30 years, you know, to get to the level that everybody would like to be at, but if the funding was there, we could get there quicker," Patrick said.
