Tulsa County's ' 4 To Fix' and Tulsa mayoral candidate Chris Medlock

Friday, August 19th 2005, 10:46 am

By: News On 6

A Tulsa city councilor wants voters to take money from the county and give it to the city. City councilor Chris Medlock wants the "4 to Fix the County" sales tax to be used for city needs instead, like police and fire.

News on 6 reporter Emory Bryan says Tulsa mayoral candidate Chris Medlock, believes the city of Tulsa should get some of the tax money now going to the county. "But it was 4 to Fix the County and the county is fixed."

The notion of cutting off money from the county to help the city doesn't sit well with the Tulsa County Commissioners. Commissioner Randi Miller: "4 to Fix The County has been successful, everybody supports 4 to Fix."

The "4 to Fix The County" sales tax has collected $47.5-million so far. It doesn't expire until October 2006. The most visible projects are at the Tulsa County Fairgrounds - many of those new buildings came from it.

Now the county uses Vision 2025 money at the fairgrounds, another reason Medlock believes the county doesn't need a sales tax as much as the city. Over the last few years the money for county government has gone way up because property tax is up, and now it's getting some of the sales tax too.

Councilor Medlock believes his voters would like to see that money spent by city hall. Commissioner Miller believes Medlock should stay out of county politics and worry more about his own district, which she used to represent. â€œCouncilor Medlock needs to understand county government and I don't think he does."

Medlock doesn't deny the results of the 4 to Fix sales tax, in fact, he says it's proof just how much good it could do for the city.

Commissioner Miller says river development will be a big part of the next 4 to Fix the county package. That will go the voters next June. By then, we'll know who won the mayor's race because the mayor's term begins April 1st.