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Vision Tulsa, sheriff special election: BatesLine ballot card

Here are my recommended votes in the Tulsa County special election on April 5, 2016, for the unexpired term for Tulsa County Sheriff and county and municipal sales tax propositions. Links lead to more detailed information or earlier blog entries. (This entry may change as I decide to add...

Posted by Michael Bates on April 5, 2016 7:00 PM

Vision Tulsa and Tulsa County, April 5, 2016, election in a nutshell

Tomorrow, April 5, 2016, voters across Tulsa County have a special election for sheriff and will also vote on the county's sales tax proposal (1/20th of a cent for 15 years) for capital projects. Here's what the white countywide ballot will look like. Voters in several Tulsa County municipalities will...

Posted by Michael Bates on April 4, 2016 5:57 PM

Vision 2025's broken promise: Economic development

We were promised in 2003 that if we passed Vision 2025, our economy would grow so much that we'd have enough additional revenue to pave streets and hire more police officers and re-open our closed city pools. If Vision 2025 made our economy grow, why are we now being asked to increase our permanent operating sales tax rate by 17.25% (from 2% to 2.345%) to fund basic police and fire coverage and street maintenance? Why are we demolishing rec centers and pools?

Posted by Michael Bates on March 31, 2016 10:33 PM

April 5, 2016, Vision Tax / River Tax ballot resolutions

On April 5, 2016, the Cities of Tulsa, Glenpool, Jenks, and Owasso and Tulsa County will vote on sales taxes to replace the 0.6% Vision 2025 county sales tax that expires at the end of this year. The following are the ballot resolutions approved by the respective City Councils and...

Posted by Michael Bates on February 19, 2016 12:38 AM

Kathy Taylor and the BOK Center budget

Former Mayor Kathy Taylor should get a "pants on fire" rating for her campaign's ads claiming that she brought BOK Center in on time and within budget. During my conversation this morning with Pat Campbell on 1170 KFAQ, Pat asked me about Kathy Taylor's claims that, as mayor, she completed...

Posted by Michael Bates on March 13, 2013 12:12 PM

"All That Tax"

From the grooveyard of forgotten favorites, here's a song from the summer of 2003 and the run-up to the Vision 2025 sales tax vote, a parody of "All That Jazz," written and sung by then-KFAQ morning show sidekick Gwen Freeman, with patter from morning show host Michael DelGiorno. I came...

Posted by Michael Bates on May 26, 2012 1:27 AM

Dams, not studies, promised in Vision 2025

An edited version of this piece was published in the July 25, 2007, issue of Urban Tulsa Weekly. The edited, published version of the piece is online, but badly formatted. Posted on the web November 3, 2012. Out of Whole Terry Cloth Simonson says, but it ain't necessarily so What...

Posted by Michael Bates on July 25, 2007 4:21 PM

Lawsuit details

Updated 2015/10/27 to fix special characters that were substituted for quotation marks and other symbols and to add a note that an address embedded in the text of the brief is no longer current. Todd Huston was kind enough to send me the brief that was filed in support of...

Posted by Michael Bates on August 28, 2003 7:43 AM