The estimated costs of public safety and capital projects are adding up for the City of Tulsa.
Some councilors are starting to talk about broadening the funding picture.
"We need to be talking about all of our revenue sources, in particular on the public safety side," said Councilor G.T. Bynum. "But we need to be mindful of all of them throughout the whole discussion."
It's looking as if the six-tenths Vision renewal can’t pay for more cops, more firefighters and capital projects on its own. Councilors may consider a sales tax increase or additional property tax levies, including bonds. No one, however, is in a rush to raise taxes.
"I am not at the point where I'm prepared to talk tax increase on sales tax or property tax — either of them — because I'm not convinced that we've done a very thorough job of evaluating all the revenue sources we already have at our disposal," Bynum said.
There is an answer to how much a sales tax increase might cost citizens. Policy Administrator Jack Blair did some number crunching and found the average Tulsa household pays about $1,200 in sales tax to the state, county and city.
"The average Tulsa household contributes $438 in sales tax to the City of Tulsa each year, based on our 3.1 percent sales tax rate," Blair said. "Each increment of one-tenth costs the average household about $14 per year."
Councilors are working to narrow the list of Vision proposals and come up with a public safety funding package in time for a spring vote.
