Councilor Karen Gilbert doubles Mayor Dewey Bartlett’s proposed sales tax for public safety funding in a new proposal.
She presented the public safety task force with a plan for a permanent four-tenths of a cent sales tax with revenue dedicated to police, fire and streets.
"Through our discussions, through the task force meetings, just taking the information of the needs of those departments and looking at is two-tenths enough — it wasn't. It isn't," Gilbert said.
The public safety task force will evaluate the proposal over the next month "to have further discussions about, you know, 'Is this necessary? Well, yes, that's necessary, but I also want this,'" Gilbert said. "And also to even look at is four-tenths even enough?"
Gilbert said her proposal will generate $28 million dollars a year, to be split 50 percent for police, 40 percent for fire and 10 percent for streets. Bartlett has not expressed support for her proposal.
"We've just been working together. I know that doesn't make much sense, but he has had his chief of staff involved in our discussions," Gilbert said.
Gilbert said her proposal won’t necessarily be an extension of the expiring Vision sales tax, like Bartlett proposes. Four councilors expressed support for Gilbert’s proposal.
If approved, Gilbert’s proposal would boost Tulsa’s sales tax rate to 8.917 percent, the same as Bixby, Owasso and Sand Springs.
