Mayor G.T. Bynum and the nine city councilors are relentless in their quest to grow municipal government.
The latest boondoggle is the effort by the city to pour millions into a BMX complex in Downtown Tulsa.
The first step was to talk voters into approving a $15 million tax increase in 2016. This was a government giveaway to a private group to coax them into relocating to Tulsa.
City leaders and chamber overlords said the project would be at the Fairgrounds, where there was ample parking and minimal infrastructure.
But it turns out that Expo Square and BMX couldn’t agree, so the city switched the location to (where else?) – Downtown Tulsa.
The city leaders follow the chamber and every major publicly funded project gets put Downtown.
Now the $15 million for BMX has grown to $23 million and who knows where it will end up when the facilities are finished downtown in two years.
The promise of an Olympic sport at the Fairgrounds for $15 million is now a promise of future events for $23 million downtown.
Cost overruns don’t matter to bureaucrats. It’s fun to spend other people’s money. Hey, it’s only $8 million over budget and in the wrong location.
Tulsa’s municipal government likes picking winners and losers. Over and over again, the city and the chamber use tax dollars to benefit private companies, including businesses and residences (in Downtown, of course).
And when you lure a private entity to town with $23 million in subsidies, what would keep them from jumping elsewhere if some city or state makes a better offer? This happens all the time.
At some point, the Tulsans in South Tulsa, West Tulsa and East Tulsa need to say that enough is enough. Streets all around the city are crumbling and even though taxpayers approve hundreds of millions of dollars for street repairs, most streets are in poor condition.
Let’s hope the light goes on before the next city election.