© 2024 Public Radio Tulsa
800 South Tucker Drive
Tulsa, OK 74104
(918) 631-2577

A listener-supported service of The University of Tulsa
classical 88.7 | public radio 89.5
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

New Funding Source Sought for City Hall

The sign in front of Tulsa's new City Hall
KWGS News
The sign in front of Tulsa's new City Hall

By John Durkee

Tulsa, OK – A new proposal has surfaced to fund --in part-- city government. Outgoing Tulsa Mayor Kathy Taylor is urging future leaders to lobby the state legislature to allow municipalities to create Fire Protection Districts.

This plan would allow the cities to get property tax dollars for the operation of fire departments. Currently, Tulsa finances most all city services via sales taxes. Tulsa gets three cents on each dollar that is spent. A similar fire district proposal failed during the 2007 legislative session.

Taylor is concerned because with each downturn of the economy the city must adjust its budget because of a drop in sales taxes. Taylor, who has long sought addition revenue streams for the city, told the Tulsa World "Sales tax is not something that grows at the same rate as expenses, and it's not something that a city should be using to budget its core services."