Ballot items worthy of city voters’ support

AS voters in Oklahoma City go to the polls Tuesday to decide a slate of bond projects totaling $967.4 million, it’s worth remembering that residents themselves helped shape the list. These are items the city council agreed upon after conducting workshops and several public hearings earlier this year.

The result is 13 projects that include street improvements, additional funding for public safety, public transit, parks, drainage improvements, affordable housing and economic development. The Oklahoman strongly supports passage of all 13.

In addition, we’re supportive of two other issues on the ballot — a 27-month extension of the MAPS penny sales tax to pay for road and street upgrades, and a quarter-cent sales tax increase to be used primarily to hire more firefighters and police officers.

Taken together, the three measures will raise about $1.5 billion during the next decade, with $785 million of that going to streets, bridges and related improvements. This is an effort to address what is consistently the No. 1 complaint among residents— the condition of our streets.

The current MAPS 3 sales tax expires at the end of December. Extending the tax for 27 months would generate about $240 million for resurfacing and other improvements, and help make Oklahoma City’s streets the envy of cities across the country.

Approval of the new quarter-cent sales tax would raise the city’s sales tax rate to 4.125 percent, and when combined with the state’s sales tax push the city’s overall sales tax rate to 8.625. That’s sizable. But so too is the current gap in police response times for the highest-priority calls — more than 8 minutes, on average, from the time a dispatcher takes the call to the time an officer arrives on scene.

Manpower is a chief reason for this— the current force is spread thin. Approval of the tax would allow for the hiring of 129 officers, which would get the police department almost halfway to the number of personnel recommended in the chief’s latest staffing study update.

The new tax also would allow for the hiring of additional firefighters. As the head of the firefighters union noted recently, trucks have been taken out of service in the past year and one downtown fire engine was removed from the budget due to not enough firefighters to use them.

Growth doesn’t happen in a vacuum; it creates challenges that need to be met. Approval of the measures on Tuesday’s ballot will put Oklahoma City in a better position to address its challenges and help ensure continued growth for the capital city.

Voters in Oklahoma County will select a new sheriff Tuesday. The winner of this three-man race will serve the remaining years of a term that runs through 2020. The job became available when John Whetsel retired after 20 years in office.

The Oklahoman endorses acting Sheriff P.D. Taylor, 71, who won a four-man special Republican primary in April. Taylor has put several changes in place since taking over the job in March, and promises more based on his many years of experience and personal observation of jail operations.