Street GOs v. Other Needs

Tulsa Councilor Bill Martinson wants all city departments to identify capital needs that must be funded if the city adopts his proposal to devote 100% of general obligation bond proceeds to street maintenance.

“If we dedicate substantial capital funding to streets at the expense of other mission critical capital needs, we might well find ourselves with similar deficiencies in other areas in the future,” Martinson said in a memo to Mayor Kathy Taylor.

“We are most interested in the kinds of items that have been funded, historically, from the general obligation bond programs, and which might therefore be impacted if a larger proportion of those funds are committed to streets,” he wrote.

Martinson’s plan would generate $1.6 billion to bring the city’s streets up to standard between 2010 and 2020.

The councilor’s “Back to Basics” proposal would dedicate to street projects the proceeds from $500 million of GOs supported by the existing property tax, as well as proceeds from $100 million of bonds supported by a 3.3 mill increase in Tulsa’s property tax rate.

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