OKC mayor pitches street proposals

Mayor Mick Cornett made the case Tuesday for sales tax and bond proposals aimed at rehabilitating crumbling streets during an update on city business for the Rotary Club of Oklahoma City.

“People want better streets,” Cornett said, calling it the “one overwhelming issue we face each year.”

Cornett spoke to about 250 people at the Rotary Club’s weekly luncheon meeting at the Petroleum Club.

In annual surveys, residents express their greatest dissatisfaction with the condition of city streets.

The sales tax and bond packages going before voters Sept. 12 would raise an estimated $785 million over the next decade for street resurfacing and related improvements.

The amount includes $240 million in the first 27 months for a crash program of street rehabilitation.

“How they interact with streets is clearly the most important thing on the mind of anyone who lives in Oklahoma City,” said Cornett.

Once voters authorize the program and projects are completed, the mayor said, “I believe … we’re going to have the best streets of any city in America.”

Voters on Sept. 12 are beingasked to:

• Extend the 1-cent MAPS sales tax for the crash program, primarily aimed at street resurfacing.

• Authorize $967.4 million in bonds to finance capital projects, including further street improvements.

• Approve a permanent quarter-cent sales tax increase, primarily to hire police officers and firefighters.

Cornett characterized the emphasis on streets as a “huge booster shot” to catch up on unmet needs, and promised a vigorous campaign to convey the value of the proposals to voters.

He praised city leadership and noted past success in winning voters’ support for bond proposals and for the string of temporary sales taxes to finance MAPS, dating back to the original vote in 1993.

He asked his audience to talk up the latest proposals with friends, neighbors and business associates, to maintain the momentum built since the 1980s oil bust and the 1995 Oklahoma City federal building bombing.

“In this day and age, in this tax environment, we don’t take anything for granted,” Cornett said.

“To the extent that you can,” Cornett said, “pass along positive comments about the city’s reputation, our ability to build stuff, that we want to continue to invest in our infrastructure, how important that is.

“You’d be really doing the city a benefit,” hesaid.

Cornett kept the tone light in a 20-minute address, noting he is on his “last tour of duty” after a 14-year tenure during which he became the city’s longest-serving mayor.

Cornett is stepping down next spring. A Republican, he has announced plans to run for governor in 2018.

Among his one-liners, the mayor touted expectations for rehabbing streets, saying: “I know your life is impacted by the quality of our streets now. And your car is taking a beating because of the streets now.

“So you don’t want to be in the tire business going forward.”

On the original MAPS package proposed to voters, Cornett said he had doubts about the Bricktown Canal.

Then working as a Channel 5 sportscaster, the mayor said he told a newsroom colleague he was going to vote for MAPS “but I don’t get that canal.”

“Interestingly, I now live on the canal,” Cornett said. “The canal is now part of the postcard that is downtown Oklahoma City.”