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Councilors Want to Shorten Tulsa Funding Package Ballot

Three weeks from the filing deadline for a targeted April election, City of Tulsa officials are trying to figure out how to present a broad funding package to voters.

Tulsa city councilors worry the Vision renewal ballot is getting too complex. The funding package has grown to include a partial Improve Our Tulsa renewal and two rounds of general obligation bonds.

"As things get more and more complicated, it's like, ah — that's 11 ballot items," said Councilor Anna America. "And that's not even counting what the county has with the sheriff's race and stuff, and we don't want to put people in there where they've got pages of ballot items.

"And as you know ballot language — you have a very limited amount of space, so you can't, you can't get too clear."

As of now, it seems the number of questions has shrunk from the seven recommended by the city legal department last week to four, but that would mean shifting projects to cut one round of bonds and to put economic development and the river together.

Councilor Phil Lakin says broader ballot questions are OK as long as there are city ordinances tied to them.

"And I think that's the most important piece, is just being very clear with our ordinances, where those dollars will go and how they'll be used," Lakin said.

Then there’s the problem of what to call it. Vision is the biggest piece, but with Improve Our Tulsa sales tax and bonds also involved now, Lakin said they may have to stop calling it the "Vision renewal."

"Yeah, it may just be titled something else," Lakin said. "It may still have the word 'vision' in it, but it's not a continuation of Vision 2025. It is a different type of vision."

After a series of public meetings this week, some councilors said they got the sense people are confused about the funding package.

The deadline to file ballot questions for an April 5 election is Feb. 4.

Matt Trotter joined KWGS as a reporter in 2013. Before coming to Public Radio Tulsa, he was the investigative producer at KJRH. His freelance work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times and on MSNBC and CNN.