City Of Tulsa May End Year Nearly $3 Million Behind Budget

The City of Tulsa said they expect to end the year nearly $3 million behind budget.

The city said they rely heavily on sales taxes to fund most of their operations. Because so many businesses are closed right now and unemployment is up, the city is not getting those funds.

Mayor G.T. Bynum said by the end of the fiscal year, which is on June 30th, they will be $2.7 million behind budget.

Bynum said that could have been even worse, if it was not for a strong first three quarters.

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After the 2008 recession, Bynum said the city worked to build up their rainy-day fund and will be able to use that to cover the rest of their 2020 expenses.

He said residents should not worry about any reduction in police or firefighters, but they have issued a hiring and travel freeze for city employees.

They expect a tough financial situation moving forward.

"Our rainy day is not a rainy year or a rainy decade,” said Bynum. “And so we're going to monitor and be very conservative about what we think our expenditures will need to be moving ahead in the coming fiscal year."

Mayor Bynum will present an in-depth budget to the city council next Wednesday evening and his plans going forward for the next fiscal year which starts on July 1st.

He said it’s important to be conservative in the front end - to avoid layoffs midway through the year.