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Mayor Gives Public Safety Task Force Details of His Funding Proposal

Matt Trotter
/
KWGS

Tulsa Police Chief Chuck Jordan says the department is heading in the wrong direction.

"Just to give us a little perspective, in January of 1994, we had 762 police officers. In January of 2015, we’ll have 755," Jordan said.

That’s one of the problems Mayor Dewey Bartlett’s funding proposal is meant to address. Bartlett says his plan will pay for 70 more cops and 16 more dispatchers, which will cut response time — currently averaging 10 and a half minutes.

"We strongly believe that the addition of 60 patrol officers in the field will reduce the priority one response time by at least one minute," Bartlett said. "The other 10 positions that we are proposing would be allocated to nonpatrol positions."

The proposal has two fiscal parts: Extend two-tenths of the expiring six-tenths of a cent Vision sales tax specifically for public safety and cap public safety spending out of the general fund at 60 percent. Councilor G.T. Bynum asked if Bartlett saw that 60 percent as a ceiling or a mandated amount.

"I would say the latter would certainly make sense to me. I think that would, because what we want to avoid is exceeding that point," Bartlett said. "That’s where we’ve had our problems, as we’ve discussed several times. Over the past several years, the amount of money we have expended out of the general fund — I think in the last three or four years it’s increased from mid-50 percent, say 54, 55 percent of the general fund, to the present 61 percent or so.

"Obviously, as we all know, our revenues have been flat, so it’s been done at the expense of our other departments."

Bartlett added the potential ballot language for the sales tax extension would specifically direct portions of that revenue toward training and paying new cops.

"I would also assume that we would have a sales tax overview committee to oversee that, and that would be their mission in life, would be to make sure that we don’t mess it up," Bartlett said.

The mayor did say this would be a short-term fix, however.

"This is — I wouldn’t say it’s a stopgap, but it certainly will take care of us for, I’m assuming, at least 10 to 20 years," Bartlett said.

Councilor Blake Ewing wondered what the outcome will be if Bartlett’s proposal, a capital package and river projects are all fighting for taxpayers’ support. While extending part of an existing sales tax isn’t a tax increase, if all those things are approved, the sales tax will likely go up.

Bartlett said being labeled a tax increase will hurt his proposal.

"How much, I don’t know. I’d hate to put that in jeopardy, because the importance of this public safety proposal, in my estimation, cannot be overstated," Bartlett said. "Therefore, I would be — I would prefer not to have to raise taxes to put it in jeopardy.

"Because this is one of those times when we really are at a crossroads, in my opinion, in our city’s capability of adequately financing our current needs and what will be our future needs."

The other concern with a potential sales tax increase is local competition. Most of Green Country’s cities have similar sales tax rates at the moment. It would be easy for another Tulsa County city that doesn’t increase its sales tax to lure shoppers away from the City of Tulsa.

That scenario is unlikely to change without the state legislature overhauling city funding laws or the federal government tackling online sales tax rules.

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.