Mayoral candidate Bill Christiansen urges defeat of Vision2

BY BRIAN BARBER World Staff Writer
Thursday, October 04, 2012
10/04/12 at 8:20 AM

Tulsa mayoral candidate Bill Christiansen on Wednesday urged Tulsa County voters to reject the proposed $748.8 million Vision2 package, saying the process has been rushed.

The proposal is touted as a 13-year extension of the Vision 2025 0.6-cent sales tax. But Christiansen said the two are very different.

"As a member of the Vision 2025 leadership team, we spent over a year taking public input and having public discussion with complete transparency and openness of what that vision entailed," he said.

Vision2 was publicly announced in August in a rush to get it on the Nov. 6 ballot.

The impetus of Vision2 by area leaders was to save American Airlines jobs by funding improvements to the city-owned facilities occupied by the company. The effort, however, was expanded to include millions of dollars for quality-of-life projects and a deal-closing fund.

When voters went to the polls in 2003 for Vision 2025, Christiansen said, they knew exactly what they were voting for.

By contrast, he said, most people he has talked to about Vision2 are confused.

Details emerge daily about how the package is structured and how different Tulsa County municipalities would spend their quality-of-life funding shares.

Also, the only public meetings that have been held about the package have dealt with the quality-of-life portion, Christiansen said, not the funding that would benefit businesses at the airport industrial park.

"I'm not opposed to talking about another Vision package," he said. "In fact, I think it's a good idea. But it needs to be done in a responsible manner."

Christiansen was a city councilor from 2002 to 2011 and is so far the only formally announced 2013 mayoral candidate.

Tulsa Mayor Dewey Bartlett, a Vision2 supporter, has said he likely will seek re-election next year. Filing for the office isn't until spring.

Christiansen said he is concerned that the Vision2 ballot language specifies only dollar amounts, not the exact projects that would be funded, leaving the possibility for changes after the public vote.

"I don't see how you can ask the people paying the bills to support something that doesn't have more specificity to it," he said.

He added that the ongoing American Airlines' bankruptcy process means there are no guarantees about job preservation.

"I'm in aviation," said Christiansen, who owns Christiansen Aviation. "I love American Airlines. I know a lot of people who work there.

"But at the end of the day, I think we would be going too far to mortgage the future of the citizens of Tulsa County and still not know what the outcome would be."

Christiansen also said the city has so many other immediate needs it should address, such as street widening and repairs and public safety.

"This is the people's money," he said, "and I take that very seriously."

About Vision2

Election date: Nov. 6

Amount: $748.8 million

Tax impact: Extension of 0.6 percent Vision 2025 sales tax from 2017 through 2029

PROPOSITION 1: ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Airport industrial complex buildings and infrastructure: $122 million

Airport industrial complex equipment: $132 million

Closing fund: $52.942 million

Bond costs and interest: $79.938 million

PROPOSITION 2: QUALITY-OF-LIFE IMPROVEMENTS

Tulsa County: $92 million

Tulsa: $157.92 million

Bixby: $11.3 million

Broken Arrow: $44.1 million

Collinsville: $3 million

Glenpool: $5.9 million

Jenks: $9.2 million

Owasso: $14.38 million

Sand Springs: $10.1 million

Skiatook: $1.16 million

Sperry: $643,894

Bond costs and interest: $12 million

Original Print Headline: Christiansen calls for defeat of Vision2, saying it was rushed

Brian Barber 918-581-8322
brian.barber@tulsaworld.com

Associated Images:

Bill Christiansen: The former city councilor says Vision 2025 was a yearlong process of public input and transparency