I highly encourage you to go to the actual article on Newsok. They have links to old ballots of previous MAPS and other important details worth educating yourself about.

Oklahoma City Council to vote on MAPS ballot
Specific plans for $777M proposal won’t be included because of a change in state law

BY JOHN ESTUS

Published: September 29, 2009

Oklahoma City Council members are expected to approve a MAPS 3 ballot today that is unlike previous MAPS ballots because it doesn’t identify specific projects.


Projects to be funded by proposed MAPS 3 sales tax revenue are only identified as city "capital improvements” in the ballot. Specifics of the $777 million MAPS 3 proposal aren’t listed on the ballot.

The description differs from what voters saw on the original MAPS ballot in 1993, which listed each individual project that was to be funded.

A resolution of intent council members are also expected to approve today states that funds from the proposed penny sales tax extension would be used only for projects in the MAPS 3 proposal.

The MAPS For Kids ballot in 2001 didn’t list individual projects, but specified that money raised from the penny sales tax was only for "public school or public school facilities expenditures.”

One reason the proposed MAPS 3 ballot lacks specifics is a change in state law that requires a separate vote for each project listed on a ballot.

That means if each individual MAPS 3 project were listed on the ballot, voters would vote for each project rather than all projects at once.

As they did with MAPS and MAPS For Kids, city leaders decided to make the MAPS 3 ballot an all-or-nothing question; voters will not vote on individual projects.

Mayor Mick Cornett, who has spearheaded the MAPS 3 initiative, said an all-or-nothing approach for MAPS 3 was chosen because it has worked with voters in the past.

"This is the process they are going to be comfortable with,” Cornett said.

Projects in the MAPS 3 proposal include a large downtown park, new convention center, a downtown streetcar and commuter rail system, Oklahoma River improvements, fairgrounds improvements, sidewalks and senior wellness centers.

Cornett said he doesn’t think the catch-all category of city "capital improvements” is too vague for voters.

"I think the expectation is they’re voting on them all at once,” Cornett said.

The mayor noted that each improvement project wasn’t listed on the MAPS For Kids ballot.

The MAPS 3 ballot asks for a vote for or against extending the penny sales tax that expires next April for another seven years and nine months in order to pay for city "capital improvements.”

In addition, the MAPS 3 ballot calls for the creation of an advisory board similar to the boards that oversaw the implementation of previous MAPS initiatives. The MAPS 3 advisory board would be guided by the resolution of intent when making recommendations on MAPS 3 projects to the city council.

Resolutions of intent are nonbinding.

They can be overturned by a city council vote. Council members voted 7-1 last week to have a final vote today on the ordinances needed to set a Dec. 8 election for MAPS 3.

Read more: NewsOK

Dec. 1993 Ballot
http://s3.amazonaws.com/content.news...s29ballot1.pdf

March 2008 Ballot
http://s3.amazonaws.com/content.news...9fcballot2.pdf

MAPS 3 Project List
http://s3.amazonaws.com/content.news...s3projects.pdf

MAPS 3 Program Resolution
http://s3.amazonaws.com/content.news...resolution.pdf