Earlier this month Tulsa Mayor Monroe Nichols proposed permanent sales tax and hotel tax increases.  He asked the Tulsa City Council to approve these proposed tax hikes  to be voted on by the public in time to be put on the ballot in February.

The sales tax would be permanently increased by  0.7 cents bringing the City’s part of the sales tax to 4.35 percent, roughly a 20 percent increase. Nichols has said this increase would fund would be spent on budget shortfalls, the homeless situation and for public safety and produce somewhere around 80 million dollars per year.

At the next Council meeting on November 5th the councilors said they needed more time to look at the proposal and tabled the issue until the November 12 council meeting.

At the November 5 meeting Councilor Phil Lakin commented “It’s hard for me to say yes to that as a vote, as a councilor, as anything, because we just haven’t had that engagement out there, I want everybody to go across the line fully knowledgeable of what they’re being asked to consider.”

Councilor Lori Dector Wright shared concerns that the increase would send buyers to some suburbs with lower tax rates.

The City Council decided at the November 12 meeting not to vote on the issue, but to send the proposal back to committee for future discussions and for more detailed information in January.

This means the proposal will not be voted on in February as it would have needed to be approved by the council by November 19.