Mayor Bynum and members of the Tulsa City Council gathered at City Hall today to announce their intention to renew the City of Tulsa’s next capital improvement package.
This summer, the citizens of Tulsa will have the opportunity to fund a $609 million capital funding package that will not raise taxes but extend Improve Our Tulsa by an additional four years and could help fund necessary improvements at City facilities and sites while also providing capital funding for public safety equipment and street maintenance.
City leaders have already taken tours of City facilities that have extreme maintenance needs and a formal discussion regarding capital needs will occur in the coming weeks so organizational discussions and community meetings can help shape a draft proposal before a summer election.
Some of the identified areas for the upcoming Improve Our Tulsa discussion and equipment needs include Municipal Court and Tulsa Police Department Headquarters, Tulsa Animal Welfare, Tulsa Fire Department Headquarters, Tulsa Performing Arts Center, The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) improvements in City facilities and Tulsa Fire Department apparatus and vehicles, to name a few.
With most funding from the last two Improve Our Tulsa packages mainly focusing on rebuilding and repaving streets throughout the city, City leaders say City facilities, public safety and street maintenance could serve as a major focus for the upcoming package.
“Since voters first approved the original Improve Our Tulsa sales tax package a decade ago, Tulsans have been a part of the largest streets improvement program in our city's history and we have made significant progress as it relates to improving our streets and infrastructure,” Mayor G.T. Bynum said. “Because of these investments by Tulsans, in the next installment of Improve Our Tulsa we have the opportunity to properly maintain city facilities that have been overlooked for far too long while enhancing the mission critical responses of our public safety departments and proactively protecting our street assets.”
"I'm pleased that we are being proactive in addressing shortfalls caused by inflation so that we can move forward with much-needed upgrades to Animal Welfare and other City facilities so that we can more effectively provide crucial services to all Tulsans,” Tulsa City Council Chair Crista Patrick said.
About City of Tulsa Capital Funding and Packages
With most day-to-day operations for the City funded by sales tax, capital funding is primarily handled by elections through General Obligation (GO) Bond Issues and extensions of the Third Penny Sales Tax. Both of these sources are used exclusively to construct capital improvements like roads, bridges, flood control, economic development investments and facility and infrastructure needs identified by the citizens of Tulsa, the Mayor and City Council.
Through the past Improve our Tulsa and Vision Tulsa funding packages, the citizens of Tulsa have funded the largest streets improvement program in the City’s history while simultaneously making visionary investments in our community through the Improve our Tulsa and Vision Tulsa funding packages.
Following the $918.7 million first Improve Our Tulsa package in 2013, in 2019, Tulsa voters approved a second capital improvements package, Improve Our Tulsa 2, which included $639 million for capital needs throughout the city.
For more information about the past Improve Our Tulsa packages, visit: www.improveourtulsa.com
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