City Of Tulsa Pursues Privatization Of Tax Collection

By Emory Bryan, The News on 6

TULSA, OK -- The City of Tulsa continues to explore privatizing the collection of sales tax, instead of using the Oklahoma Tax Commission. No other city in Oklahoma has tried using a private firm to collect tax.

Two city employees met recently with officials from Revenue Discovery Systems, a private tax collection firm based in Birmingham, Alabama. Jim Twombly, Director of Administration for Mayor Dewey Bartlett, and Stan Jones, the Manager of the Treasury Division, met in Birmingham to discuss the possibility of using RDS to collect both sales and use tax. The Tulsa Community Foundation paid $1,122 to cover the travel cost.

Mayor Bartlett's Chief of Staff, Terry Simonson, has been working on the project for several months and believes a private firm could capture more tax for the city, at a lower cost than the Tax Commission.

3/2/2010  Related Story: City Of Tulsa May Fire State Tax Commission Over Tax Collections

The Oklahoma Tax Commission charges each city a percentage of the tax collected.

The City of Tulsa collected $16,682,891 in sales tax in April.

5/7/2010  Related Story: Tulsa Sales Tax Collection Increases For First Time In 14 Months