Bond, sales tax plans should draw feedback
OUR VIEWS
C| CITY COUNCIL SEEKING PUBLIC’S VIEWS ITIZEN surveys conducted by City Hall consistently show the condition of city streets as residents’ biggest complaint. These surveys also reveal strong public support for police officers and firefighters.
City officials are hoping to address both these issues at the same time, and want to get the public’s views about their plans during a hearing June 13. We urge readers to take them up on the invitation.
On that morning, the city council will entertain public comments about using general obligation bonds to fund improvements to streets and other projects over a 10-year span. Also on the docket that day is a proposal for a 1-cent sales tax that would go partially toward streets and also toward hiring police officers and firefighters.
It’s estimated that the GO bonds, combined with the sales tax revenue, would generate $725 million for streets over a decade. The public comments will help shape the city council’s final decision one week later as to what bond projects — the lengthy list ranges from streets to libraries — will ultimately be placed before voters on Sept. 12.
Oklahoma City voters have supported using a 1-cent sales tax to fund capital improvements. Indeed, doing so has transformed the city.
Approval of the first Metropolitan Area Projects, or MAPS, tax in 1993 paid for such things as Bricktown Ballpark, a new library, a renovated Civic Center and what is now Chesapeake Energy Arena. That was followed in 2001 by MAPS for Kids, which upgraded public schools across the city (a subsequent 18-month tax dubbed “Big League City” paid for arena renovations and an NBA-caliber practice facility that helped bring the Thunder to town). The most recent MAPS iteration, MAPS 3, was approved in 2009 and is being used to build projects ranging from trails and senior wellness centers to downtown streetcars and a convention center.
Each of these followed the same model — projects would be completed debt-free, and the tax would include a sunset date.
City officials haven’t formally attached the “MAPS” moniker to their new proposal. Instead, they have proposed extending the 1-cent MAPS 3 tax that will expire Dec. 31, and for 27 months using threequarters-of-a-cent for street resurfacing, sidewalks, streetscapes, bike lanes and trails.
City officials also wish to take the remaining onefourth of that penny, which would generate an estimated $26 million per year, and make it a permanent revenue stream to be used primarily to bolster the ranks of firefighters and police officers. According to estimates, the former could see 42 additional members, the latter 129.
Ward 2 Councilman Ed Shadid says he would prefer to see schools included in the sales tax plan, and cited polling that shows residents like the idea of an extension that would help reduce class sizes and increase teacher pay. “They do not want just streets,” Shadid argued this week. We shall see. We’ll also get a sense June 13 of how residents feel about creating a permanent funding stream for the men and women in blue. The council meets at 8:30 a.m. — mark your calendars.