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December 21, 2009
The revenue picture just doesn't get any better, does it? After reeling from news that Tulsa Police Department cuts could go as deep as 123 officers after the first of the year, Tulsans now receive word from Tulsa Fire Chief Allen LaCroix that his department could face layoffs of as many as 120 firefighters and the closing of 31 active stations.
Both of those are worst-case scenarios.
How deep the cuts actually will go depends on December tax collections. If they reflect an active holiday buying season, Mayor Dewey Bartlett might only need to trim 2.2 percent from budgets. But if buyers stayed home or spent less at local stores, the cuts could go as high as 4.4 percent.
This probably isn't a good time to talk about a public safety tax of perhaps a half-cent but if Tulsans want to maintain city police and fire departments at full staff, continue training academies and keep every fire station open during economic downturns, such a tax might be an option.
The Fire Department's 2.2 percent scenario would mean 49 firefighters laid off, while the 4.4 percent budget reduction would hit 120. The force now has 674 firefighters.
LaCroix said: "We're like everyone else. We're down to personnel. We don't have much else we can cut."
Every department in the city is saying the same thing: They're into the muscle on cuts and down to personnel.
If the public safety cuts do become a reality, the city not only loses police officers and firefighters, it also loses the costly investment it made in training them.
This is a time for hard choices by taxpayers trying to survive the rough economy as well as the city and the state. City and state sales taxes are nearly 9 percent in Tulsa. The public safety tax is an option - one used in Oklahoma City. Whether it would prove palatable to voters here would depend on how much they are willing to sacrifice to keep fire and police departments at pre-recession levels.
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