A forum downtown at the Central Library was held Saturday afternoon to educate Tulsa County voters about Vision2 and those who oppose it are coming up with their own ideas if Vision2 fails to pass the November 6th election.
“It's letting us catch up with projects in our plans that have not been funded,” said co-chair for Vision2 at the forum, Don Walker. “This gives every city in the county to give us their most important needs and letting us complete them.”
Voters against the Vision2 like Michael Bates, a local blogger, is proposing his own ideas and educating others at the forum about why Vision2 is not right for the county.
“There are better ways to do it,” said Bates. “I proposed one way, which involves each city passing a tax to replace Vision 2025 when it expires. But that's a discussion to be had in an orderly and calm fashion not the hasty way this thing has been thrown together.”
Vision2 is an extension on the Vision 2025 0.6 percent sales tax to give Tulsa counties a total of $748.8 million. The extension would start when the current tax expired on January 1, 2017 and it would last through December 31, 2029. The money would go to economic development and quality-of-life improvements.
Tulsa city gets $158 million and those who oppose it say without the overall tax increase Tulsa could already raise $558 million. They also say by passing Vision2 the county can veto City of Tulsa projects, and if Vision2 fails to pass the City of Tulsa voters would have full control over projects.
“Instead of having $158 million to spend if the City of Tulsa replaced vision 2025 with its own tax, we would have $558 million to spend on various projects and could also be used to help operate the projects we have,” said Bates.
You can vote on Vision2 at the November 6th election.
