The vote yes side is trying to allay concerns about the length of the tax, a tough sell, because the tax it will run 13 years, no matter how much money it raises. There is no cutoff once the projects are paid for.
At the TulsaNow forum a week and a half ago, Paul Wilson claimed that we can trust the County Commissioners to cut off the tax, because they did it once before. The 1994-1995 Whirlpool sales tax was ended earlier than scheduled, he said. (This morning on KFAQ, Mayor Bill LaFortune trotted out the same line.)
That didn't match my memory, and afterwards, several people confirmed that Wilson was wrong. County Commissioners made a commitment prior to the election that the tax would be cut off as soon as $26 million was raised. The Whirlpool tax oversight committee had as part of its task monitoring receipts and gauging when the tax could be cut off to take in at least the required $26 million. The Commissioners rejected limiting the tax to a fixed period (although state law at the time limited it to three years). The tax was cut off after a year because the target was reached, not because the Commissioners were feeling benificent.
Commissioners could have placed a dollar cutoff in this tax as well -- someone has suggested the project amounts plus 10% to cover possible cost overruns. It's no good to say the Commissioners might have mercy on us in 10 years or so; they had the chance to make the dollar cutoff a legal requirement and they declined to do so. What do you think they (or their successors) will do after over a decade of enjoying an annual revenue stream of $70 million or more?
Here are excerpts from a story from the April 21, 1994, Tulsa Whirled (emphasis mine). For the full text for this and a couple of related stories, click the link below.
The plant would provide about 1,400 jobs in Tulsa County. The tax will be assessed until $26 million is collected. Officials predict that should take a year or less. Harris said the overview committee would monitor collections to ensure the tax ends on schedule.
And from the September 7, 1994, Tulsa Whirled:
The plant, which will make kitchen ranges, will cost more than $100 million to build. It will have a work force of 1,300. County residents voted last June for a half-penny sales tax to raise $26 million to help Whirlpool build its plant. A condition of that election was that a committee would oversee collection of the money.
The tax went into effect July 1. The first money should be coming in by the second or third week of September, Oklahoma Tax Commission officials said.
The Tax Commission will collect the tax, then give the money to the county treasurer, who will turn it over to the Tulsa County Industrial Trust Authority for distribution to the Whirlpool project.
The trust authority comprises all three county commissioners. The 10-member watchdog panel will monitor the collection of the money, primarily to make sure that once the $26 million is raised the tax is eliminated. Officials believe the $26 million will be raised in about a year....
"No one knows how quickly the $26 million will be raised. It could be 10 months all the way to 14 months." [Commissioner Lewis] Harris said that if slightly more than $26 million is raised, the remainder will probably be used for road improvements around the plant, which will be in the Cherokee Expressway Industrial District.
Plan Revealed To Create Tax Watch Panel Fount Holland II 04/21/1994 TULSA WORLD (FINAL HOME EDITION Edition), Page N11 of City State, News
Tulsa County Commissioner Lew Harris announced Wednesday plans to create a watchdog committee to oversee the proposed half-cent sales tax.
The tax, if approved June 14, would raise $26 million to ensure Tulsa would land the Whirlpool plant.
Whirlpool has signed a letter of intent to locate in Tulsa County, but the move is contingent on passage of the tax.
"We want to make certain that voters have confidence that this tax money will be spent as proposed," Harris said.
Each of the three county commissioners will appoint three people from each district to a "sales tax overview committee." Harris said he expects the commissioners will appoint people who are independent of government and can be trusted to perform in a watchdog role.
The plant would provide about 1,400 jobs in Tulsa County. The tax will be assessed until $26 million is collected. Officials predict that should take a year or less. Harris said the overview committee would monitor collections
to ensure the tax ends on schedule.
The county committee will function like the city's sales tax overview committee. That committee oversees the third penny sales tax, which is spent for capital projects.
The lack of a watchdog committee was blamed partly for the failure of the city's 1979 sales tax question. Some election watchers speculated that voters doubted the tax would be spent as the city said.
The 1980 sales tax proposition included the city's first watchdog committee.
Tulsa City Council Chairman John Benjamin has encouraged county commissioners to involve citizens in the oversight of any sales tax.
"The watchdog committee for the city of Tulsa has worked well to ensure that money from the city's third penny sales tax is spent in the way it was proposed to be spent," Benjamin said.
The City Council will vote on a resolution Thursday night endorsing the county sales tax proposal. The resolution is expected to pass easily.
A committee, "Citizens for Tulsa County," is being formed to support the proposition. Members are expected to be announced next week.
Tulsa County was selected by Whirlpool over 10 other sites. If the plant moves here, it will be located in Cherokee Industrial Park near 76th Street North and Yale Avenue.
County Sets Up Tax Watchdog Panel Manny Gamallo 09/07/1994
TULSA WORLD (FINAL HOME EDITION Edition), Page N11 of City State, News
Tulsa County commissioners set up a committee Tuesday to monitor sales tax collections for the new Whirlpool plant, but stopped short of naming its members.
Commission Chairman Lew Harris said a list of 10 potential committee members had been sent to the election board to ensure that members are registered county voters. If they are, they probably will be confirmed at next Monday's
commission meeting, he said.
Commissioner John Selph selected John Gray of Tulsa, the owner of Ollie's Restaurant; Jenks Mayor Mike Tinker; and David Singleton of Tulsa, the deputy director of Philbrook Museum of Art.
Commissioner Bob Dick selected Michael Caldwell of Broken Arrow, and Joel Sander and Christopher S. Medlock, both of Tulsa.
Harris chose James Perkin of Owasso, Kathy Flanagan of Skiatook, and Sharon Dean and Lloyd Williams, both of Tulsa. Perkin was recommended to Harris by the Eastern Oklahoma Building & Construction Trades Council. Harris said Tulsa City Councilor Joe Williams recommended Dean, and Councilor Darrell Gilbert tapped Williams. He said he asked for the councilors' recommendations "because
they have districts in my district."
Harris' district takes in all of northern Tulsa County, including the site of the Whirlpool plant.
The plant, which will make kitchen ranges, will cost more than $100 million to build. It will have a work force of 1,300. County residents voted last June for a half-penny sales tax to raise $26 million to help Whirlpool build its plant. A condition of that election was that a committee would oversee collection of the money.
The tax went into effect July 1. The first money should be coming in by the second or third week of September, Oklahoma Tax Commission officials said.
The Tax Commission will collect the tax, then give the money to the county treasurer, who will turn it over to the Tulsa County Industrial Trust Authority for distribution to the Whirlpool project.
The trust authority comprises all three county commissioners. The 10-member watchdog panel will monitor the collection of the money, primarily to make sure that once the $26 million is raised the tax is eliminated. Officials believe the $26 million will be raised in about a year.
Tax Commission officials said the tax should raise about $1,970,139 a month, or $23,641,677 a year. But officials say the $26 million will be raised by investing
the tax proceeds.
Harris said any investments will be short-term, "even if they're overnight."
He said the exact distribution of money to Whirlpool hadn't been worked out yet.
The state law that set up the Whirlpool funding allows the $26 million to be used for the plant's construction, its infrastructure or the purchase of manufacturing equipment, Harris said.
"We haven't had any word from them yet on how they want it spent. Maybe they'll want to spend the money on a mix of all three," he said.
"The thing to keep in mind is that no one has ever done this before. We've never had a county tax for a project like this," he said.
"No one knows how quickly the $26 million will be raised. It could be 10 months all the way to 14 months." Harris said that if slightly more than $26 million is raised, the remainder will probably be used for road improvements around the plant, which will be in the Cherokee Expressway Industrial District.
Blinded Watchdogs
10/28/1995
TULSA WORLD (FINAL HOME EDITION Edition), Page N20 of Editorial, Opinion
EVEN while they were creating a new "watchdog" committee to keep tabs on the new jail tax, County Commissioners didn't bother to consult the watchdogs they had appointed for the sales tax voted to bring a Whirlpool plant to town.
Members of the Whirlpool Sales Tax oversight committee Thursday complained that they weren't notified of the commissioners' intent to spend $1.7 million in excess revenues on several projects in connection with the new kitchen range plant in the Cherokee Industrial Park at 76th Street North and Yale Avenue. The money was in addition to the $26 million raised to help Whirlpool build the plant.
County Commissioner John Selph, the only one of the three commissioners facing the music at a meeting of the watchdog committee, apologized for simply sending the oversight committee a copy of the Tulsa County Industrial Authority's resolution which approved the $1.7 million in projects.
The Authority is made up of the three county commissioners and is a perfect example of why critics fought the commissioners when they wanted to form a similar commission-dominated authority to spend the annual $25 million which will come in to build and operate a new county jail.
The commissioners finally relented to public pressure and agreed to a seven-member authority which includes four Tulsa County mayors. And, they agreed to a watchdog committee to be made up of 14 citizens.
Here's a wish -- forlorn, perhaps, considering the experience of the Whirlpool watchdoggers -- that the jail oversight committee will play a more aggressive role than its most recent example. Let's not send a cocker spaniel to do a police dog's work.
