I attended a meeting today where Commissioner Miller spoke at length about the river tax. Some of the things she said stuck with me, as I have not heard them before in this debate.
First, the City of Tulsa has $200,000,000 right now in tax funds to fix the streets of Tulsa. This is tax revenue from 3rd penny extensions as well as a passed street bond issue in the recent past. She says the problem is that there are not enough contractors to spend all this money to fix the streets, and it will take years to get through the backlog.
Second, she said that the resolution that was passed to back up the river tax has sunset provisions and an early out provision if all projects are built and funded early, and if $50 million is received from the Federal government to help with river development.
Interesting..........
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
River Tax Revelations from Randi Miller
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4 comments:
Saw a video of Miller a couple of weeks ago with her saying it was only $90 million. But, regardless, they have pretty much cornered the labor market in this town with public funded projects. I'd hate to be trying to build a free market project at this point.
These attributes have been tacted on as it evolved, due to its' unpopularity. Attempts to sweeten the pot.
Still, the overriding reason to oppose this plan is the new county authority and the lack of fulfillment of promises the County made in V2025.
At this point, they're pulling all stops to get it passed. But, it's just bad and can't be fixed by patchwork.
...the problem is that there are not enough contractors to spend all this money to fix the streets...
What? There's government money available and not enough people want to take it?
I'm having an awfully hard time believing that one...
The third penny is split out into very specific projects. Once you subtract the cost of those projects out are..or should..be left with nothing. In the case of the 2001 third penny we were 70 million short. Anyway, you have to spend that money on the projects that were promised as part of the third penny sales tax...you cant spend it on whatever you want. Also, there are billions of dollars of needs. Even if there were 200 million to spend however we wanted, it would just be a drop in the bucket.
But, it's just bad and can't be fixed by patchwork.
They've been trying it this way for years on on roads, and see where it's gotten us.
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