Quote:
Originally Posted by Wambo36
Thanks Andy for the figures. Pulse, does that still sound like a bull**** story? The city has been reducing their general fund obligation to the police and fire departments since the 3/4 cent sales tax passed. They reduced the number of FF and PO's paid for in the general fund so that we will never see the 200 ADDITIONAL FF's the tax was supposed to provide for. In the last ten years the FD call volume has increased by 85% while they have lost 49 positions. Hardly what the people voted for. They've become very creative in their methods of diverting these funds but anyone with a fair eye can see through their bull**** story. I still can't believe these are the people you are trusting with this vague ballot.
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The police and fire unions are crying for more money, and that is by opposing a program that is funded by a temporary one cent sales tax while they have permanent funding through a dedicated .75% sales tax in addition to the lions share of a 2% general sales tax fund.
They argue that with MAPS 3 passing that police and fire services will be in peril. That's the bull**** story.
What they SHOULD be saying is with the continued growth of Oklahoma City, the current funding trend would put the fire and police protection in peril. I would buy that. If I were them, I would have been going public with this problem long ago. That would have put the city in a position BEFORE MAPS to address their needs.
As far as the vague ballot is concerned, there was information released as to why the wording of the ballot is extremely different. It turns out the wording of the original MAPS ballot was illegal, and to avoid possible challenges, the ballot for MAPS 3 had to generalize MAPS 3 as a single project, not multiple projects as it was on the first ballot.