Jenks and Owasso voters give higher taxes thumbs-down
Jenks and Owasso voters turned down property tax increases (general obligation bond issues) by overwhelming margins on Tuesday, while Broken Arrow school district voters approved a reallocation of an existing bond issue that involved no tax increase at all.
According to KRMG News, the Owasso tax increase would have amounted to about $170 annually on a $100,000 home, while the Jenks increase would have been about $25 per $100,000.
Complete but unofficial results from the Tulsa County Election Board:
ÂCity of Jenks
Fire equipment, police headquarters
Yes 288 32.99%
No 585 67.01%
 Â
City of OwassoProposition 1: Youth sports facilities
Yes 676 14.02%
No 4146 85.98%Proposition 2: Streets
Yes 1,088 22.53%
No 3,742 77.47%Proposition 3: Parks and aquatic center
Yes 779 16.21%
No 4,026 83.79%ISD-3 (Broken Arrow)
Yes 2,671 78.19%
No 745 21.81%
It appears that voters want their elected officials to focus on the basics and even then they want to see good stewardship of existing revenue streams rather than higher rates.
This is the make-do era. We are paying down debt, delaying major purchases, taking few risks, making the most of what we already have. In the current environment, transferring money from homeowners to heavy construction companies for the sake of some nice-to-haves doesn't make much sense.
Tulsa's establishment and elected officials will probably take the wrong lesson from the result and assume a marketing failure. Hire the right PR firm, the right political consultants, and any tax hike will pass. It worked in 2003. It almost worked in 2007.
But not now, not for a long time to come.
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Organized opposition to the tax increases appeared to pay a key role in the defeat of these tax initiatives, rather than just a generalized opposition to more taxes.
Secretary Bates, I would love to have your input and advice on my Master's Thesis exploring my families' heading the colored schools in N.E. Oklahoma, deputization on Nowata reservation and principal of Muskogee high school and Dunbar Elementary prior and after Oklahoma Statehood.
The Owasso ballot initiatives were defeated by truly awesome percentages, ranging from 77% to 86% NO vote, with the Owasso Mayor admitting in today's Lorton's World that the turnout was the highest he had ever seen.
Nevertheless, I expect that the Tax Vampires with their insatiable appetite for tax dollars will be back at the throats of Tulsa Voters in 2012.
The Tax Vampires will have a new Tulsa City Council in January 2012, comprised of their hand-picked candidates that they (Bank of Kaiser executives, King Kaiser himself, the Metro Tulsa Chamber of Commerce, and several of their connected cronies) well-funded.
Expect to see a repackaged repeat of the 2007 Kaiser River Tax, with something thrown in for Broken Arrow to buy off their politicians. Afterall, didn't it take the Rooneys, Flints, Lortons, and Kaiser three attempts (1997, 2000, and 2003) to gull the Tulsa County voters into approving a sales tax for a new Arena?
Remember their mantra: "It's About Jobs".
Where are those pandering, pimping politicians that successfully promoted 2003 Vision 2025 and the 2007 Kaiser River Tax?
Mayor Bill LaFortune - Faux Reformer Defeated.
Tulsa County Commissioner "Dirty" Bob Dick - Retired to the Oaks Country Club.
Mayor Kathy Taylor - High maintenance, home-wrecker wisely chose to not seek re-election.
Tulsa County Commissioner Randi "Pool-Boy" Miller - Defeated in the GOP Primary by Sally Bell.
Not to worry. Mayor Dewey, Jr., and the three Amigos on the Tulsa County Commission are four more extraneous local pandering, pimping politicians that the local ruling elite can use up promoting their fiscal follies, then simply dispose of when unelectable.
Afterall, they've got Karen Keith, Phil Lakin and G.T. Bynum waiting in the wings, as "reformers", right?