Mayor Bartlett makes announcement about budget and helicopters

TULSA - Tuesday morning, Tulsa Mayor, Dewey Bartlett discussed some major issues facing the city of Tulsa, including the city's future budget.

First, the mayor announced, the second police helicopter will fly once again.

Both helicopters will not fly at the same time, unless there is a major emergency and they are both needed.

Police will rotate the use of the two and fly one when the other is getting maintenance.

The money will come from the police budget and the money budgeted by councilors.

Next up, the budget.

The mayor says right now, the city of Tulsa will be facing an $18 million budget shortfall for the 2011-2012 budget year.

He says there will be new expenses and some grants will expire.

"We need to be very, very prudent with the tax payers money and approach this conservatively because we are not out of the woods yet, we still have some things we need to address," said Bartlett.

Bartlett says the solution to the budget gap will be a combination of better spending and the result of the city collecting our own sales tax dollars.

The city filed a lawsuit against the state last week to allow that to happen.

Bartlett says now other surrounding cities, like Jenks, Glenpool, Bixby and Sand Springs are all interested in the lawsuit.

In an effort to streamline city spending, the city has hired a private firm-KPMG-to take a closer look how the city runs and spends money.

KPMG's spending audit should be complete next month. Bartlett says the audit will provide opportunities to close the budget gap.