Ewing Seeking New Tax Revenue Generators

City councilor seeks ideas to increase sales-tax revenue
BY KEVIN CANFIELD World Staff Writer
Saturday, July 06, 2013

With city officials in the middle of talks on how to spend $917.9 million on capital improvement projects, City Councilor Blake Ewing thinks the time is right for a parallel discussion on how the city can increase its primary source of revenue – sales-tax collections.

“I definitely think it is responsible to try and find ways to be efficient with what you’ve got,” Ewing said. “And that seems to be something we spend about 99 percent of the time at City Hall doing … and there has been little conversation about how to increase the size of the pie.”

The city councilor hopes to change that by holding a series of public meetings with fellow councilors, Mayor Dewey Bartlett, city planning and economic development officials, the Tulsa Regional Chamber and any other officials interested in the subject.

The meeting dates have yet to be determined, but Ewing’s hope is to present ideas on how the city can increase sales-tax revenue at the same time officials are asking the public to consider spending hundreds of millions of dollars on capital improvements.

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