Tulsa city leaders want to know how Owasso successfully passed a permanent half-cent sales tax to fund public safety.
"Given that we can't look to property tax for operational funding, we can't look to income tax, we can't look to the sources that every other state in the United States can look to, there's just not a lot of choices," said Owasso City Manager Warren Lehr. "So, two-tenths of a penny, five-tenths of a penny or eight-tenths, whatever it is — Oklahoma City did it a penny at a time."
Lehr said the city was direct and transparent with voters about why the tax was needed and how the money would be spent. It passed with 76 percent of the vote.
Lehr said they didn’t have a Plan B to fund public safety.
"Plan B is we'll keep doing what we're doing, and in five years from now, your property values will probably be down 5 percent, and in 10 years 10 percent," Lehr said. "That's just my guesstimate, but it's at least that. You'll find yourself in a community that you don't really want to be a part of."
Owasso voters passed their sales tax dedicated to funding more cops, a new fire station and road maintenance Jan. 13th. They passed it after rejecting two previous public funding packages.
It came down to public presentations, council resolutions to direct funds and canvassing neighborhoods. Lehr said northeastern Oklahoma is playing catch up. Oklahoma City–area municipalities have an average city sales tax of 4 percent, while here it’s 3.25.
"So that three-quarters of a percent that Oklahoma City municipalities are collecting, of course it's tens of millions, quickly hundreds of millions of dollars that those communities are able to reinvest," Lehr said.
With passage of the sales tax, Owasso also repealed a monthly public safety capital fee charged to city utility customers.
