Tulsans will vote on a $597,000,000.00 tax increase on November 12 but some city officials want as much as $2,200,000,000.00 just to fix the city’s crumbling streets. About $427,000,000.00 of the giant tax package would be financed through borrowing (bonds) and the rest would be paid for by sales taxes. The sales tax in Tulsa…
Mayor G. T. Bynum has ordered the City of Tulsa to accept proposals to develop a comprehensive housing market demand study and recommend a strategy to spend more money downtown and surrounding neighborhoods. It will update the 2010 Downtown Housing Study. Bynum, city councilors and the chamber are actively promoting housing in Downtown. In the…
Tulsa Mayor G. T. Bynum is considering the establishment of a citizen’s advisory board to provide oversight of the Tulsa Police Department (TPD). The mayor says staffing for this board will cost the city about $500,000 per year. This proposal is being driven by activist groups who believe Tulsa law enforcement personnel have not acted…
Mayor G.T. Bynum and the Tulsa City Council can raise taxes or fees without any measurable response from the public. A recent example is the raising of the hotel tax by 3 percent for hotels with more than 110 rooms. There seems to be two criteria for these tax increases: they have to be approved…
Why is South Tulsa not a factor in city politics? People who live and work in Midtown and Downtown dominate Tulsa policies and spending. Yet much of Tulsa’s retail business is outside those areas and they produce much of the funding for city government. Not too long ago, Woodland Hills Mall at 71st Street and…
Mayor G.T. Bynum and the Tulsa City Council are formulating plans for a massive tax increase for more improvements in Downtown Tulsa. No details on the actual cost will be sought have been released to the public. Bynum, who is registered as a Republican, unveiled an 160-page document that calls for millions of dollars in…
Mayor G.T. Bynum wants to do away with “partisan politics.” It’s just too divisive in his view. Maybe he should register as an Independent instead of a Republican so that the Republicans who voted for him would know more about where he stands. “In Tulsa, people still matter more than partisanship,” Bynum said. That sounds…
Mayor G.T. Bynum and the Tulsa City Council love to raise taxes and fees to grow government and they are experts at disguising the impact. The latest salvo of taxation is a “tourism improvement district.” This tax scheme would raise an additional $2,300,000.00 a year by increasing the cost of hotel stays. This scheme mandates…
Hustler Hollywood may already be open on 41st Street just west of Sheridan Road. That means you can add sexually oriented retail merchandize to the list of Tulsa vices – including tribal casinos, alcohol in almost every retail store and marijuana farms. Several years ago, former Mayor (now District Court Judge) Bill LaFortune used his…
Mayor G.T. Bynum wants to roll out the red carpet for immigrants to Tulsa. He created the New Tulsans Welcoming Plan, which he claims will build “a more equitable Tulsa while fostering connections between all immigrants and long-term residents.” Bynum said this wasn’t a movement to ignore federal immigration laws or to turn Tulsa into…