Mark your calendar. City councilors are leaning toward April as the month Tulsans vote on a Vision sales tax renewal.
The process of calling the election will need to start a few months before that. Senior Assistant City Attorney Mark Swiney said the council needs to pass ordinances spelling out what the tax rate changes will be and what the money will be spent on specifically.
"It's the calculation of what those projects are, how much they're going to cost and how much has to be devoted to each project — that's the major portion," Swiney said. "And that's not done by the legal department or the finance department. It's done by the engineering department."
The last step is filing a resolution with the county election board to call the election. That needs to happen 60 days ahead of election day.
Councilors think think November or December this year may be too early. There are plenty of chances next year, but they may require filing with the election board at different times.
"In 2016, there are federal and state offices that are in the election works, and that changes the lead time from 60 days to 75 days," Swiney said.
June 2016 is available, but the mayor, auditor and council election is already on that date. Swiney brought a ballot from the last time a funding package and municipal offices shared an election.
"The mayor was elected. The city auditor was elected. We also had the charter amendment amending the salary of the city councilors, plus the sales tax renewal. That's the Improve Our Tulsa. Plus the bond package that was also on that same ballot," Swiney said.
