Separate city and county proposals for a 0.167-cent tax are likely headed to ballots Nov. 12 after an apparent breakdown in talks to combine or stagger the initiatives, officials said Tuesday.
Leaders from both sides met privately at least four times this month to brainstorm a compromise that would prevent side-by-side 0.167-cent proposals - a scenario they feared would endanger both, either by confusing voters or by raising the possibility of a tax increase for Tulsans if both pass.
Mayor Dewey Bartlett and city councilors on Tuesday rejected the most significant compromise idea stemming from those meetings - sharing a 0.167-cent tax, which Finance Director Mike Kier warned would force the city to compensate by lengthening its proposal and thereby diluting its effectiveness.
Tulsa County Commissioner Karen Keith, meanwhile, said the council's consolation offer to include in its proposal $5 million for the county's proposed $50 million juvenile justice center would not keep her from pushing for a new countywide 0.167-cent tax for the project.
"I feel like the city has done everything we can while respecting the process that we've gone through to make sure that we're spending public money in a responsible way," said Councilor G.T. Bynum, who chairs a task force helping to assemble the city's proposal.
"What Commissioner Keith is asking us to do is just throw around tens of millions of dollars on the fly with no public input and no scrutiny, and that's not responsible."
Keith, who said her first goal was to get the city to abandon the 0.167-cent tax altogether, said she was "incredibly disappointed" by the apparent failure of the talks, noting that the council's offer wouldn't cover a meaningful portion of the project.
"I'm not sure $5 million is a generous offer or even genuine," she said. "That is not who we are in this community, where we say to one government entity that it's OK to starve another government entity when we're all pulling from the same tax pool."
For at least nine months in a process that has included dozens of public meetings, city officials have discussed 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 capital needs.
Councilors plan to vote Thursday to send the measure to voters.
County officials announced their plan late last month, saying they would seek a countywide vote on the same day to enact a new permanent 0.167-cent tax to fund the juvenile justice center and additional pods at the Tulsa Jail.
Councilors have criticized that timing as "late in the game," and they reiterated Tuesday that significantly changing their projects days before their vote would be irresponsible.
A later vote would risk missing state deadlines for calling an election, city officials say.
"I've gotten numerous, numerous compliments on how well we as a council have put this package together and how we've gone out and gotten citizen input, ... and I think to change it if we were to split (the 0.167-cent tax) would be a disservice to the citizens of Tulsa," Councilor Karen Gilbert said. But she and several other councilors indicated that they would support the $5 million allocation as a "peace offering."
Bynum said it would include a pledge to support and help develop a countywide funding proposal this spring to finish funding the county's criminal justice projects and develop similar projects with input from the county and Tulsa's suburbs.
Keith said the county cannot wait until spring because "we have some rather urgent and immediate needs, and we know what they are," but added that she supports the city's package. "I hope their package is strong enough that if we have to go head-to-head, we both survive.
Capital Improvements Package
- Council vote 6 p.m. Thursday
- Council chambers, City Hall, 175 E. Second St.
- Public comment sign-up before meeting
Sales-tax possibilities
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. The city wants to extend its 1.167-cent capital project sales tax, which includes the 0.167 former 4 to Fix tax, while the county wants to enact a new 0.167-cent tax.
Here are three potential scenarios for future taxes in Tulsa:
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 (possible tax decrease)
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.
*The Tulsa taxes expire June 30, 2014, which gives the city time to propose a new vote in April if the Nov. 12 vote fails
Zack Stoycoff 918-581-8486
zack.stoycoff@tulsaworld.com
Original Print Headline: Fall ballot likely to carry separate city, county tax plans
