City and county officials are trying to reach a compromise over their two proposals for a 0.167-cent sales tax, they announced Thursday.
Mayor Dewey Bartlett, members of his staff and two city councilors have met privately several times this month with County Commissioner Karen Keith and Sheriff Stanley Glanz to discuss a deal that could include sharing the tax that both entities hope to capture, officials said.
"Our needs are your needs, and I'm just imploring you to think about a little give-and-take on this and allow us to be successful and you to be successful at the same time," Keith told councilors during a committee meeting Thursday morning.
"The worst thing that could happen are to have both of these go down."
For nearly a year, city officials have been discussing temporarily extending Tulsa's 0.167-cent share of the county's former 4 to Fix tax to fund $65 million worth of projects in their nearly $920 million capital improvements package, which focuses on transportation and other capital needs.
Councilors hope to vote next week to send the measure to city voters Nov. 12.
Tulsa County officials announced plans in late July to seek a countywide vote on the same day to enact a new permanent 0.167-cent tax to fund a new juvenile justice center and additional pods at the Tulsa Jail.
If both taxes are approved, it would mean a tax increase countywide, as well as for Tulsa residents, who would have approved two separate 0.167-cent initiatives.
Officials from both sides said Thursday that they fear such a prospect would endanger both proposals.
The private meetings - attended by City Manager Jim Twombly, Bartlett Chief of Staff Jared Brejcha and city councilors David Patrick and G.T. Bynum - are intended, as Bynum put it, "to see if there's a way to be able to move ahead in a concerted way rather than anyone having some impression that there are competing proposals out there."
Bartlett said the talks have been "very direct" but that no compromise has been reached. The group will continue meeting, he said.
"I won't be very specific, but we have very aggressively attempted to find some common ground," he said. "We recognize that at the end of the day, the city of Tulsa and the county of Tulsa, we both work essentially for the same taxpayers."
Officials declined Thursday to reveal specific compromise ideas, but possibilities raised during the City Council committee meeting included splitting up the 0.167-cent tax, with a portion going to the city and a portion to the county.
Keith also suggested that the city abandon the tax altogether and ask its residents to make up the difference by extending its third-penny sales tax for a longer period than 5 1/2 to 6 years, as is already proposed in the capital improvements package.
Councilors voiced opposition to both ideas Thursday, arguing that they have already agreed on most of the projects that would be funded in the city initiative.
The city, meanwhile, has sought public feedback through two rounds of town hall meetings while the county's proposal seemingly has had little public involvement, councilors argued.
"We've been working on this proposal for the last nine to 10 months, and two weeks before we pass our ordinances and resolution you're wanting us to totally change the landscape of our proposal," Councilor Karen Gilbert told county officials.
Bynum added that reducing the package at this point "would be very difficult," and Councilor Jack Henderson called the county's "late-in-the-game" proposal a "tough pill to swallow."
Councilor Phil Lakin asked Keith to delay the county's proposition, saying he agrees with the projects but that having two 0.167-cent proposals on one ballot might confuse voters and sway them to vote no on both.
Keith maintained that she would still "implore" the city to "back off a little bit" because the county's needs are urgent and county officials are "against the wall."
She declined to say after the meeting whether she would pursue a county initiative if no compromise is reached.
"I don't know what it's going to end up looking like, but I do know that we have needs that are there now," Keith said. "I'm just hopeful."
The county is in the midst of a petition drive to hold a special election Nov. 12 for its proposal. For the election to be called, 5 percent of registered voters in Tulsa County at the time of the last general election, or approximately 17,777 voters, would have to sign the petition.
The Sheriff's Office is working during off hours to collect signatures and may be on track to meet ballot requirements, Keith said.
Sales-tax possibilities
Sheriff Stanley Glanz's ballot initiative to hold a Nov. 12 special election on a 0.167 percent countywide sales tax to fund a new juvenile justice center and additional pods at the Tulsa Jail comes at the same time the city of Tulsa is proposing a Nov. 12 city election on its next capital improvements package.
The city's proposed $919.9 million capital improvements package would be funded in part with an existing citywide 1.167 percent sales tax.
Right now, shoppers in Tulsa pay 8.517 percent in sales taxes. It breaks down as 4.5 percent to the state, 3.167 percent to the city and 0.85 percent to the county.
Here are three potential scenarios for future taxes:
Scenario 1:
City tax package passes and county tax fails: 8.517 percent (tax remains same)
Scenario 2
City tax package fails and county tax passes: 7.517 percent (tax is decreased)
Scenario 3
Both tax packages pass: 8.684 percent (tax is increased)
Scenario 4
Both tax packages fail: 7.35 percent
Sales tax rates in Tulsa County
If a countywide jail tax is approved, 0.167 would be added to each community's existing sales-tax rate.
Zack Stoycoff 918-581-8486
zack.stoycoff@tulsaworld.com
Original Print Headline: City, county hold talks on tax
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