Mayor Requests Fire and Police Furloughs

City of Tulsa workers will take the furloughs if the city management will stop making full payments for services "not operational" such as streetlights & security lights leased from the electric utility company. Begin collections of traffic fines unpaid. Cease maintaining infrastructure like street lighting of U.S. Interstate Highways belonging to the State of Oklahoma Department of Transportation in violation of Federal Highway Administration rules. All contractors shall have to follow all safety and statues followed by city employees. Potable water sales contracts with other cities & towns made by past Tulsa government officials prior to current mayor will force Tulsa citizens to subsidize under bid water treatment rates and distribution.

One of the first places to start cutting the budget would be to stop permitting city employees to drive city vehicles to their personal residence. How much does this additional auto expense cost the city each year? There is no reason for many of these vehicles to be driven to the employees residence, ESPECIALLY those employees who do not reside within the city limits of Tulsa. How many of these vehicles are driven to Broken Arrow, Bixby, Jenks, Sand Springs, and other rural or surrounding cities? I doubt very seriously if this PERK could be justified. It seems the real culprits in these situations are never addressed. If you're serious, start with the FLUFF!

I understand the need to make cutbacks - but they should never be at the expense of safety and protection. We have less police per capita than other cities our size - and crimes (shootings, meth labs, etc) are on the rise. The fire departments have been responding to more fires. I am confident there are many other ways to trim the budget without cutting back on our police and firefighters.

Police and fire think they are so "special"! So if furloughs won't work for them - then union - just cut their base pay 1.5%! The rest of us will choose to keep our base pay and take a furlough. We all work for the same company - we should all share alike. If you recall after 9/11 police and fire got a raise while the rest of us city workers took a pay cut. Besides, you don't have to take all 4 days at a time - perhaps a half day at a time thus no OT by others will be required. Be creative! Don't agree with this mayor on 99% of items - but right now when many co's are laying off, a furlough sounds reasonable to me. Get on board police and fire with the fact that you too should share the burden. I have to feed my family, buy gas for my car to come to work... OH! police you don't have to buy gas -what pay raise for you to keep!

Ms. Mayor: Public safety is FIRST and FORMOST! Just remember the NEXT ELECTION! I hope you go back to Florida!

I say shut the Ball Park project down, but resume at a later date. Mayor, this is a time of necessities, not a time for entertainment. Our Police and Fireman are a necessity and should not be compromised so you can continue "your projects". We need these services in full force to maintain the integrity of "our city".

Tulsa taxpayers have spent more than $350 million in new taxes for “downtown revitalization” in the past dozen years. Taylor has lobbied for hundreds of millions of dollars in new taxes, with almost all of the benefit going to downtown. If the stadium is built, Tulsa could end up spending almost half a billion dollars to renovate downtown. The public will not have an opportunity to vote on building a baseball stadium or determine its location. The district approved by the council will hike the tax assessment rate to 6.5 cents per square foot on land and building for almost all property owners. The rate now ranges from 3.5 cents to 0.01 cent, depending on the location of the property from the former Main Mall. Churches, private homes with a homestead exemption and federally owned properties are exempt from Taylor’s tax. Funding for the ballpark will include 4.3 cents of the 6.5 tax increase. The rest will go toward unspecified downtown projects. The tax increases will fund $25 million of the $60 million ballpark. When the baseball stadium debt is retired, the 4.3 cent assessment will end, leaving the 2.2 cents for the 30-year life of the district

Fox 23 did not say we need to cut anything, they were quoting what the Mayor has contemplated doing to save the budget. Now that is cleared up, let me state how I see it. Ms Taylor should get dismissed. She would rather have a dang stadium than have our city safe. Does she not see that crime is on the rise in Tulsa so rampant that it is sickening to hear her even suggest less personnel such as fire and police staff to protect us. Cathy Taylor is an absolute moron if she does this. Citizens SPEAK UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Could we send her back to Florida? Surely there must be a city somewhere in Florida where she could build a new ball stadium, maybe they would even name it after her. OH BOY!

It would be very interesting to know the true facts about the mayor's staff, their job descriptions, and the salaries of the individuals in those positions. It might also be very interesting to know the expense budget of the mayor's office. It would seem rather obvious that the furloughs should first be in the non-essential positions instead of the fire and police. PLEASE SOMEBODY, ANYBODY, run run for the office of mayor. I truly believe ANY candidate would have a very good chance of being elected.