Tax and Spend Attitude

According to Congressman John Sullivan “Washington’s tax and spend attitude must be stopped.” Sullivan apparently loses some of his fiscal conservatism somewhere between Washington and Tulsa, because he has no qualms about supporting the River Tax. `

Maybe he doesn’t know that his constituents here in Tulsa County enjoy the heaviest tax burden in the state. Maybe he doesn’t know that the average sales tax across the country is 6.8%, and that Tulsa already beats that average about 1.7 cents. Or that if this tax passes we will surpass Chicago, which has the highest combined rate for a metropolitan area at 8.75%, by 0.2%.

Perhaps John Sullivan has forgotten that sales tax is generally regarded as a regressive tax, and that the way to bring in more money for a government is to lower taxes not raise them. I wonder if he forgot Tulsa’s primary means for funding is sales tax, and when the county raises the tax the ability of Tulsa to raise sales tax, if needed, is diminished. Maybe he forgot how crummy our streets are and that this tax could be better used for our streets, or perhaps reducing our violent crime rate which is double the national average.

It is possible that he didn’t know that this plan is not complete, and doesn’t even have the Corp of Engineers approval. Maybe he forgot that we already passed a tax to build the two low water dams when we passed Vision 2025. I think he must not know that the projected overages of 2025 might very well be enough to pay for this project without a tax increase.

Or maybe he just got bored in Washington and instead of doing his job represent us there, he thought it might be a good idea to stick his nose in to a local concern that many of his core conservative constituents are against.

Maybe we should remind him that he has been elected to represent us in Washington and he needs to focus on issues that affect us on the national level; that if high taxes are a bad idea on the national scale that they are a bad idea in Tulsa. Call his office at 918-749-0014 and remind him.

Technorati Tags: Tulsa County
River Tax
John Sullivan

Okie Bloggers: Don't Forget to Vote

Voting for the 2007 Okie Blog Awards ends tomorrow. If you haven't already, don't forget to vote.

Technorati Tags: Okie Blogs

The County's Blank Check

Mad Okie over at Living on Tulsa Time has made in interesting discovery with regard to the River Tax ballot on October 9th.

The ballot has some very strategically placed words that would seemingly give our county commissioners the power to spend this tax money on whatever they want. Should this tax pass, and one of the projects fall through, or if the Corp of Engineers reject the plan, it would appear that the County would have a blank check. This proposal is sloppy. We need more than a few weeks to know exactly what we are getting ourselves into. Vote no on October 9th, force the County to come back with a complete plan and a better ballot.


Technorati Tags: Tulsa County
River Tax
blank check

River Tax Form With Ken Yazel

On Monday evening I attended a River Tax Forum hosted by Tulsa County Assessor Ken Yazel. Yazel, along with State Senator Randy Brogdon, Tulsa City Councilor Roscoe Turner, Tulsa City Councilor John Eagleton, and Broken Arrow Mayor Wade McCaleb all spoke out against the proposed sales tax for river development.

Ken Yazel’s main point is that Tulsa County’s tax burden is already too large. In fact Tulsa County has the highest tax burden in Oklahoma. Yazel pointed out that the tax in Tulsa County, measured either per person or per building, has been consistently doubling over the years and if the trend continues it will double again in 5 years. While tax rates have gone up, our median income has gone down by about two-thousand dollars. Yazel explains that “We are driving people out of our county,” and it is this exodus that is responsible for the lower income.

After Yazel spoke it was Senator Brogdon’s turn, and he came on strong. He said, “The tidal wave of taxes that the politicians continue to push on us is just about to sink the family budget.” In reference to the proposed river tax, Brogdon said, “This is one of the lousiest misdirected taxes I’ve seen in my life.” He pointed out that there was not one thing in this proposal that benefited Owasso and that it was fool hardy to levy a county tax for municipal projects. Tulsa County municipalities are already overburdened, and if this tax passes, it will severely limit the ability of those cities to levy additional tax for their own priorities. Brogdon said that he could not be convinced that the river in Tulsa is more important than the priorities in Owasso, namely funding streets, police, and fire. This is a point that was later reverberated by Broken Arrow Mayor McCaleb. He said that Broken Arrows priorities are roads, schools, public safety and this tax will preclude Broken Arrow from meeting those needs.


Councilor Turner spoke out about the undue influence Tulsa County has over Tulsa. As the unincorporated area in the County shrinks, so should the county’s influence and responsibility. However, the passage of this tax would give the county more power and more responsibility.

Councilor Eagleton quoted several wise leaders:

“There is no such thing as a good tax.”—Winston Churchill

“The power to tax involves the power to destroy.”—Justice John Marshall

"The commissioners believe in solid conservative economic principles that when you raise taxes, you hamper commerce and industry.” –Tulsa County Commissioner John Smaligo

"I, Fred Perry, pledge to the taxpayers of the 69th district of the state of Oklahoma and to all the people of this state that I will oppose and vote against any and all efforts to increase taxes."—Tulsa County Commissioner Fred Perry

“Under no circumstances should sales tax exceed current levels.”—Tulsa County Commissioner Randi Miller (quoted in 2000)

The quotes from the County Commissioners were particularly interesting as these three are now seemingly ignoring their prior principles by asking for more tax money.

Eagleton also pointed out that the proposed river project could be completed without the need for a tax increase. He estimates that the 2025 tax will rake in $199-$200 million extra. This money could be used to fund the river, but even if his estimates are wrong and the 2025 overages couldn’t pay for it, Eagleton suggested that the 2025 tax could be extended. This approach would make us wait longer for river development, but it would seem to be the more sensible approach.

These points are hard to ignore. Tulsa County is over-taxed, but that is not even the greatest sin. Our government, with its disproportionate tax stream, is failing to fulfill its most basic responsibility, public safety and infrastructure. We have some of the worst streets in the country and crime seems to be out of control. How can we consider taxing ourselves further over a project that fails to meet those needs. Until our leaders present a plan to fulfill the most basic role of government, and until they can present a plan to fund river development without raising taxes, I’ll be voting no on October 9th

Technorati Tags: Tulsa County
River Tax
Ken Yazel
Randy Brogdon
Roscoe Turner
John Eagleton
Wade McCaleb
Fred Perry
John Smaligo
Randi Miller

MC Hammer/Don't Tase me Bro Mashup

Enjoy...


Technorati Tags: Don't Tase me bro

Asplundh Sighted in East Tulsa

On my way to work I saw Asplundh preparing to do PSO's bidding on 27th street, just west of 129th East Ave. I enjoy the trees on this street; I really hope Asplundh doesn't butcher them.



[update] They did not cut the trees that I'm concerned about(of course, I'm not the homeowner...), but it does look like they did a number on the ones that were close to the power lines.

Technorati Tags: Tulsa
East Tulsa
Asplundh
tree trimming
PSO

Star Trek/Dallas Mashup

I guess you can mix Star Trek with anything. Last week it was Star Trek with Monty Python. This week it is TNG and Dallas...


Technorati Tags: Star Trek: TNG
Dallas

50,000th visitor

According to sitemeter my 50,000th visitor (since I started counting) was from Tulsa. They spent 1 min 9 sec reading this post. They used Windows XP and IE6.0

Technorati Tags: visits

Camelot on Fire

Today the historic Camelot hotel caught fire. Somehow a pile of mattresses and carpet outside the hotel erupted in flame and spread inside the hotel. TFD was on the scene as was I...Here are my pictures.



Technorati Tags: Tulsa
Camelot Hotel
fire

Live Blogging – River Forum

I’m at the Tulsa Now River Forum at OSU Tulsa. Since there is an internet connection here, I’ll try doing some live blogging, where I’ll just update this post as I fancy it.


----
Question, I’m on a fixed income, I will have to move. I

John Pearcy - depending on the level of income, you can apply for a rebate. If you are over 65, or if you make 50,000 or less.

John Eagleton - Tulsa is over taxed, we pay more taxes than is required to run our governance.
He listed some past quotes from Commissioner Miller and Smaligo where the seemed to appose sales tax increases
-----
Question, What about the dams on 2025.

Gaylon Pinc - the estimates in the 2025 were wrong, and it was always intended to be supplemented by federal dollars

Eagelton – Per the 2025 proposition
“Construct two low water dams on Arkansas River the locations of which will be determined in the Arkansas River Corridor Plan -- $5.6 million
Zink Lake Shoreline Beautification -- $1.8 million
Design and construct Zink Lake Upstream Catch Basin and silt removal -- $2.1 million”

Colin Tawney - I could not find anywhere it said that it was always supposed to be matched, except one 2003 article in the Tulsa World
---

Eaglton - just said a few things I thought were good....

What puts Tulsa on the map is infrastructure centered around business and industry. Business and industry are what pays the bills. (as apposed to retail)

"A temporary tax will end up being as temporary as the toll on the Turner Turnpike."
------
David Schuttler is here taking video, notes and pictures. Keep and eye on his blog for updates on this forum.


-----
Pinc - In 3-5 years the low water dams could be built…if we go forward.
-----
It is hard to do live blogging in this kind of forum...I'm finding it difficult to keep this updated and listen at the same time....It's a good thing that Schutller is here.
----
Question, The proposal mentions connections between downtown and the river...What about the blight along Denver?

Pinc - What we propose to do is make walkable corridors between the river and downtown. This exact locations have yet determined

Tawney - I’d love to vote for this a year from now once these details are made clear.
----
Question about foreign workers for construction.
Tawney - With the exodus of Hispanic workers, I’m afraid construction costs will go up.
----
Tulsa Now, will also have the video on their site. Ohh yeah, and they have free Starbucks...thanks Tulsa Now!

---
Question, What about the Jenks River Development

Eagelton - This sales tax chops away or erodes the Tax base that Tulsa counts on, The River walk was a private development without the need for sales tax. We have had a low water dam in Tulsa for 30 years, and how much development do we have down there.

Pearcy - There was a great deal of public money put in to the Jenks development, if we want to see development you have to invest

Eagelton – It was all private, yes the streets go there but that is caused infrastructure.
---
I did not catch the question.

Tawney - We don’t have enough details, don’t be afraid to vote this down and let them come back with a better plan.

Pinc – Voting this down now will only end up costing us money.
---
Question, Will the Kaiser donation that was p go away…really?
Pearcy – He said he will put the money somewhere else if he can’t put it in the river. The last time Tulsa voted down the river was 1979…so the political leaders wont bring this back.
----
Question, Why cat the election be held during the primaries?

Pearcy – again the motivation was to make this a single issue election which was probably a mistake, because higher turnout elections tend to be better for a yes vote
Pinc the sooner we pass this the sooner we can start and it will save us money.
Eagleton - Of course it will take years to get the permits so a delay of 90 days will not make any difference.
---
I'm out of battery...thats all folks. I'll edit this later.
---
So I'm back home, and I'll close out this post. I want to point out that unless you see actual quotes, everything I put in this post was a paraphrase.

The last question was: Put on your rose-colored-glasses and talk about river development, what would you like to see?

Eagleton - This is a great plan and I know that it can be done without raising taxes.
Tawney - I like this plan but we need more than three weeks to study it.
Pearcy - I wish I could live another 25 years to see what the full impact of this project will be. It can not be done without public money
Pinc - My vision is this plan. My dream is that this plan is completed quickly, in less than 7 years.
----
So I hope you enjoyed this rather raw and mostly unedited kind of blogging. Did anyone actually get to see this post grow over time?

I enjoyed it. I found that I did not have as much opportunity to let my bias slip in. I was trying so hard to keep up, that I had to post what was said without any comment. Overall I think both sides did well but I was not swayed by the pro-tax crowed. I'm still against the River Tax.

Technorati Tags: Live Blogging
Tulsa County
Arkansas River
River Tax

Don’t Feed the Spammers

If you really feel it is necessary to tell your 50 closest friends about a scam to get Microsoft to give you a dollar, or to let everyone you know how much you support the troops, or to warn mothers about spider eggs in infant formula, or whatever else happens to be floating around the internet; please do me this one favor…Don’t send it to me!

But I know you, your lack of judgment and tact will force you to send your email; if not to me, then to everyone else. So, when you do eventually send this mind-numbing-tripe to your 49 remaining friends, don’t use the TO field, use the BCC(blind carbon copy) field. Send it to yourself, then BCC all the unluckily souls that will be bothered by the internet diarrhea that you feel must be passed on so you can find true love or have 5 wishes or whatever.

By utilizing this wondrous technology you will be protecting the identity of your 49 other friends. This serves to purposes:
1. It keeps your 49 friends from having to acknowledge that they know you.
2. It will protect their email address from spammers who use your stupid emails to populate their email lists.

Technorati Tags: spam
chain emails
rant

Please Fill Out Our School Lunch Form...Please

I think this letter constitutes the fourth time we have been asked to fill out the application for free or reduced priced lunches.

They are starting to wear me down. But I think I'm going to remain pig headed steadfast.

1. "Once all families have filed, Disney Elementary will be considered for no charge meals for all students." 100% of the kids at this school do not need free lunch. I assume that the ones who really do "need" a free lunch are already getting it through the free/reduced lunch program. Furthermore, I walk the 5-year-old to school every day, and I can tell by looking at the clothes these kids wear, and the cars their parents drive that it wont kill them financially to make their kid a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. In my last post on this topic, I point out that the census data would tend to agree with my observations.

2. I fail to see why we want to encourage large numbers of children to participate in this program. Shouldn't we be encouraging people to get off and stay off welfare? The problem lies with the school and their desire to get their hands on Title I funding, whatever the cost. However, having a large percentage of students participating in the free/reduced price lunch program doesn't bode well for the school or the neighborhood. To quote a previous commenter to my blog,

The best and the brightest kids, and the best parents either get into the schools they want, or they leave. Those kids would be the leaders, socially and academically, in their schools. The parents would be active and interested in their kids education, and they would not hesitate to complain if there were a problem. The good kids and parents who are left are insufficient to the task of making a difference.

These people would also be the neighborhood leaders, and their absence diminishes the neighborhood in the same way.

I would submit that these high numbers of free/reduced price lunch participation only exacerbates this exodus.

3. My child doesn't qualify, and I see no reason to fill out a form with personal information on it. The form asks all kinds of questions as to the income of my household. It's none of the school's business what I make, and I'm not going to voluntarily give them that information, especially when it serves my child no benefit.

I'm not going to be pressured into filling out this form. So I wish they would quit asking.

Technorati Tags: Tulsa
Tulsa Public Schools
welfare
welfare state
school lunch program

Miller at the Republican Assembly

On Tuesday the 11th, I attended the Republican Assembly’s monthly meeting where the guest speaker, Tulsa County Commissioner Randi Miller, spoke about the proposed River Tax. Randi Miller made several comments that I think need to be scrutinized.

One of the things I’ve heard her say on this and other occasions is “I wanted to do the river during Vision 2025, but we did not have a plan in place.” She is admitting that she knew, in 2003, that development of the river is what was needed to spur Tulsa’s growth. She knew that our real vision for Tulsa was the river, but she decided to support 2025 anyway. It was said that something had to be done, and that this was our opportunity to help Tulsa grow, and this was the tax package to do it. But now she is trying to sell us on the idea that 2025 was some how deficient and the river is the real opportunity for growth? I now hear the same rhetoric as before: something has to be done..this is our one opportunity and if we don’t pass this tax Tulsa wont grow. Well excuse me if I don’t buy it. If Randi knew this needed to be done in 2003, she should have shown real leadership and fought Vision 2025. I have to say it would be a much easier sell if we were not already over-burdened with the 2025 sales tax.

Speaking of 2025, one of the points she keeps bringing up is the argument that the money in 2025 for two low water dams was never intended to fully fund their construction. I heard her say at one meeting that it was always just seed money and that any rational person should have known that we weren’t really going build those dams for that amount. On Tuesday she kept saying, “go back and look at the public record”, we never said that this money would build these dams, it was always intended that we would need to augment these funds in order to build the dams. Well I’m sorry Randi, but that is not how it was sold. Perhaps this fact was clear if you really studied the issue or if you went to all the meetings but don’t act like we all should have known that 2025 wouldn’t build these dams. This is revisionism at its best, at is worst it’s just dishonest.

She also made mention of the need for Tulsa to invest in its infrastructure. In the midst of talking about how important it was to lay the groundwork for private enterprise to grow, and how we needed to invest in the River, she made a rather peculiar statement about how we lost the Bass Pro shop, and how we lost the Aquarium. My first thought, was yeah and we lost Bell’s, thanks so much for that! Then I thought, well what are you trying to say Randi? Are you saying that we lost these opportunities because we didn’t develop the river or because we haven’t invested in Tulsa’s infrastructure? Because nether is really true. In both cases the blame rests not with a lack of interest in Tulsa by investors or Tulsa's inferior infrastructure, but rather poor leadership by our elected officials, or because of back-door deals made to pass 2025 (I tend to think it is really a bit of both). So again, don’t point to bad leadership and ask us for more money, it really isn’t very inspiring.

But the last and most disturbing of her points has to do with Tulsa’s roads. As you well know, the roads in Tulsa are less than stellar. This is one of the major arguments against this River Tax. If we raise our sales tax now, then we are not really in a position to raise the money necessary to fix our streets in the future. Therefore, if investing in public infrastructure is the argument behind the river proposal then it seems that the more glaring infrastructure need, our roads, should be addressed first. In an attempt to address this, she made a rather bizarre and confusing diatribe about how Tulsa has the money to fix the streets, how it’s just a matter of efficiency and prioritization. At least I think that is what she was saying she really didn’t make any sense. It was when she made mention about all kinds of money laying around in our sales tax funds I challenged her a little. She looked at me and said “Do you know how much money is left in the 2001 sales tax fund?” I mumbled something and she said with great assuredness “$90 million” and then continued her nonsensical ramblings about some cryptic way Tulsa was going to fund our streets with out raising our taxes I guess. “So, you’ll get your streets”

Ok where to start on that last one? 90 million? Where did she get that number? If you will remember the 2001 third penny sales tax was 70 million short. If you actually look at the numbers, which I have access to being on the sales tax overview committee, $90 million is no where to be found. According to my last report, “To date, $264.6 million has been spent on projects in this (the 2001 third penny sales tax) fund and another $25.0 million is currently under contract. Appropriations to date total $319.4 million with a balance of $29.9 million.” So there really isn’t any money left in this fund that isn’t already spoken for, certainly not $90 million. But even if there were some kind of magical surplus it couldn’t easily be touched because of limitations placed on the money by the Brown Ordinance. So Randi really doesn’t know what she is talking about here. She had made mention of her opposition’s tactic of “confuse and conquer”, but it seems that she is really more guilty of that than anyone.

Randi did really say anything to sway me to her side, if any thing she mostly made comments that confused and angered me. Now that I’m no longer ignoring this issue on my blog, you can expect more posts on this topic in the future.


Technorati Tags: Randi Miller
Tulsa County
Arkansas River
River Tax

Star Trek and Monty Python

Two great things that go great together...apparently...



(via The Wizard of Speed and Time)

Technorati Tags: Knights of the Round Table
Star Trek
Monty Python

J.M. Davis Arms & Historical Museum

So apparently the worlds largest private collection of firearms is in our very own back yard. On Sunday I went to the J.M. Davis Arms & Historical Museum which contains the lifetime collection of Davis, including over 20,000 guns and artifacts, displayed in Claremore Oklahoma in a 40,000 square foot museum.

There were so many guns, it was overwhelming. I couldn't possibly have taken pictures of them all. However, I did take a few pictures, which you can see here. Unfortunately, I quickly realized that if I took pictures of every gun I thought was cool, that I'd be there for the rest of my life, trying to figure out how to take the shot with minimal glare. So I only took a few pictures which do the museum little justice.

The Davis Museum contains guns from all around the world including Kentucky rifles, a Gatling gun, black powder rifles of all types, cannons, rare Colts, Winchesters, elephant, whaling, and outlaw guns.

Besides firearms, the collection contains 1,200 German beer stines, The John Rogers' Statuary collection, music boxes of the late 1800's, swords, knives, Indian artifacts, household antiques, a large boot jack collection, local cattle brands, hundreds of animal horns, and trophy heads, and WWI posters.

I had alot of fun, so would I recommend a trip out to Claremore to the Davis Museum...plus admission is free.

Technorati Tags: J.M. Davis
Claremore
Oklahoma