The Tulsa City Council joined Mayor G.T. Bynum at City Hall Wednesday to announce their plan to renew the city's next capital improvement package.
The package must be approved by voters over the summer.
The total package would be around $609 million, but leaders say it will not raise taxes.
Instead, it would extend Improve Our Tulsa by four years.
The city says it hopes to use the money to improve city buildings that are in need of extreme maintenance needs including the Municipal Court and Tulsa Police Department Headquarters, Tulsa Animal Welfare, Tulsa Fire Department Headquarters, Tulsa Performing Arts Center, The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) improvements in City facilities and Tulsa Fire Department apparatus and vehicles, to name a few.
"I'm pleased that we are being proactive in addressing shortfalls caused by inflation so that we can move forward with much-needed upgrades to Animal Welfare and other City facilities so that we can more effectively provide crucial services to all Tulsans,” Tulsa City Council Chair Crista Patrick said.
With most funding from the last two Improve Our Tulsa packages mainly focusing on rebuilding and repaving streets throughout the city, city leaders say city facilities, public safety and street maintenance could be a major focus for the upcoming package.
“Since voters first approved the original Improve Our Tulsa sales tax package a decade ago, Tulsans have been a part of the largest streets improvement program in our city's history and we have made significant progress as it relates to improving our streets and infrastructure,” Mayor G.T. Bynum said. “Because of these investments by Tulsans, in the next installment of Improve Our Tulsa we have the opportunity to properly maintain city facilities that have been overlooked for far too long while enhancing the mission critical responses of our public safety departments and proactively protecting our street assets.”