Vote No on May 13 tax increase
The price of milk has doubled from $2 to $4 a gallon. The price of gasoline has almost doubled from $2 to $3.49 a gallon. Tulsans are seeing their water bills rise 54 percent in a three-year period (plus the addition of a EMSA ambulance tax). PSO has been granted a rate increase because of December’s ice storm. Mayor Kathy Taylor wants to raise sales tax permanently to 9 percent and float a multi-million bond issue for our decrepit streets.
Is there any new tax that Taylor would oppose? Not hardly.
And Tulsa Community College wants $76 million in higher property taxes to build new buildings and add staff. County voters will decide the fate of that request on May 13.
How much more can Tulsans - especially low-income and fixed-income - stand?
There’s no doubt TCC fills an important voice in Tulsa’s higher education. However, TCC already gets more than $30 million in local taxes. Plus, the state supports OU-Tulsa, OSU-Tulsa, Langston, Northeastern State University and Rogers State in the Tulsa area.
TCC classrooms are not overflowing. In fact, it has problems filling some classes during the summer semester.
Once you build buildings, there is an on-going cost to pay for professors, maintenance people, heating and cooling and repair.
Seventy-six million dollars is a lot of money, especially considering that Tulsa County taxpayers are already spending almost $100 million from Vision 2025 to prop up higher education. TCC has a growing program to offer free tuition. That’s great. But now is not the time to dig into the back pockets of Tulsa County taxpayers and build new facilities that are not justified.
Responsible citizens should vote no on May 13 - not against TCC but against raising unnecessary taxes during a recession.