OU President David Boren has proposed upping the state sales tax one cent to boost public education funding.
Early polls show he has about 70 percent of voters’ support. Tulsa City Councilor Blake Ewing, however, is not a fan of Boren’s idea.
"I think he’s a wonderful university president, and he cares about education in our state, as he should — as we all should," Ewing said. "But just because something is a big, major, pressing need doesn’t mean we come up with ridiculous, half-cocked solutions to solve problems because our state legislature’s too inept to solve it themselves."
If approved, Boren’s proposal would bump Tulsa’s current total rate to more than 9.5 percent. Tulsa city councilors are still hammering out proposals to pay for more police and firefighters and for a variety of capital projects. Under Oklahoma law, cities’ primary source of funding is sales tax collections.
"I think it is just bad policy that hamstrings Oklahoma cities," Ewing said.
Boren has said an additional cent will generate $600 million for Oklahoma schools. Ewing acknowledged public education is important.
"But I don’t think it’s the appropriate thing to say, 'Because education is so important, any solution is a good solution,'" Ewing said. "No. There are bad solutions, and government will be creating a problem that only government can solve if we allow that additional penny to be added to our sales tax rate here."
Boren says he picked the sales tax because property or income tax hikes wouldn’t get bipartisan support. The public safety and capital funding packages Tulsa city councilors are considering, including a Vision sales tax renewal, would maintain or increase the city’s current total sales tax rate.
