Just the facts on the Tulsa River Development/tax....

I thought you might like to hear a progress report on the river development vote (the nice thing about e-mail is that if you really don't want to hear, you can delete now; I'll wait):

I think a lot of the confusion is being cleared up-

• This is not The Channels; it is the older, basic plan that has been studied for many years with hundreds of public meetings.
• There was never the intention that the small amount of money in Vision 2025 for dams ($5.6 million) would pay for them, only that it would pay for studies and perhaps help seed a federal grant that never came because of the greater need for Katrina recovery efforts; the remaining Vision 2025 money (and more than $12 million from other voter-approved sources) is being applied to this plan.
• There will be strong oversight of how the money is spent by both a citizen committee and the foundations, individuals and businesses who are putting up $117 million to improve the plan.
• There is a tax rebate for those over 65 (I promise not to take mine) and those with family income below about $50,000.
• This will be largely a pay as you go arrangement, saving lots of interest, because several of the projects will take a couple of years to gain approval and the tax can accumulate and earn interest.
• The main thing the public project does is put water in the river at all times, with eleven miles of lakes and improved access, including street and sidewalk improvements leading to the river and pedestrian bridges across it. The private supplement builds parks, playgrounds, wilderness and fitness areas along the banks.
• And the real thing the river plan does is demonstrate to prospective employers and to our kids who are leaving town to find good jobs that Tulsans are serious about improving their city and making it more livable.

Almost no one seems opposed to the plan itself but the vote will be close because many people will vote no for reasons unrelated to the proposal, such as...

• opposition to all taxes, even one of less than half a penny (or about ten cents per day for most people) for just seven years;
• belief that other needs are more urgent, like road repair; There is clearly a high priority need for this purpose but it will be separately funded under a plan that is just now being developed. We need to do both.
• concern in one city that every dollar they pay doesn't come back to them in projects within their city limits and that those dollars could otherwise be taxed locally. But more than 50% of their residents work in the city of Tulsa and use its facilities which were largely paid for without cost to them;
• concern in one area of the city about a wholly unrelated issue that they want to protest about by rejecting this plan, which they acknowledge is sound.

If you have questions that I have not clarified here (or if you don't like my answers), please take a look at the FAQ section of the website, OurRiverYes.com at http://www.ourriveryes.com/overview/q&a/ and any other material online that takes an opposing view.

I hope, after you have done all of your own research, looking at the advice of the pro and con people, that you will conclude, as I have, that this is critically important for Tulsa and will vote YES. This may be our last shot for a long, long time to pull ourselves out of the economic drift we are in. And maybe, also, you could help explain the plan, as you see it, to your friends and neighbors.