Mayor Kathy Taylor Outlines Her Budget Proposals For Next Year

There may be a new direction for Tulsa. Mayor Kathy Taylor presented her budget ideas for next year to the city council Tuesday morning. It was the mayor's first chance to really create the budget

Tuesday, May 1st 2007, 10:36 am

By: News On 6

There may be a new direction for Tulsa. Mayor Kathy Taylor presented her budget ideas for next year to the city council Tuesday morning. It was the mayor's first chance to really create the budget from scratch. Last year she took office only a month before the budget was due so there wasn't much time. The News On 6â€™s Emory Bryan reports this year though she brought what she says was a business approach to city budgeting.

Taylor hit the highlights of her $561 million budget for the city council. Now the council has two months to make changes before finalizing the numbers. Taylor's plan, she says, represent something of a change in direction.

"For far too long in this city, we have failed to address and recognize what I call the inconvenient realities," said Taylor.

One of those, she says, was a steadily growing subsidy for city golf courses which amounted to more than a million dollars last year. Taylor recommends closing 18 holes at Page Belcher and 9 holes at Mohawk Park to cut the subsidy in half.

"I could not in good conscience recommend a $1.6 million subsidy on golf courses when we can't repair and open swimming pools in high crime areas," said Taylor.

The mayor says Tulsa's swimming pools deserve more money, but 11 of them can't open because they need repairs. She's hoping to find both public and private money for repairs so more pools can open with the priority being the ones in high crime areas.

"We have to be ready to invest for the future, and those are not always things you see immediately, but they are things that make a difference in the quality of life for our citizens," said Taylor.

The bottom line in the budget is no cuts in service, besides the golf courses, but no restoration of services that were previously cut.

Tulsa Mayor Kathy Taylor has several charts concerning the budget on the City of Tulsa website.

Watch the video: Mayor Kathy Taylor Outlines Budget