Vision2 fails to pass; supporters considering similar proposals for future ballots

TULSA - Just as quickly as it appeared on the ballot, voters shot down a a multi-million dollar tax proposal that would have provided funding for improvement projects in Tulsa County.

Vision2 was a $748 million extension of Vision2025 , a six-tenths of a penny sales tax that ultimately gave Tulsa the BOK Center.

As of 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, with 97 percent of precincts reporting on Vision2 Proposition 1, 56 percent of voters said no. With 97 percent of precincts reporting on Proposition 2, 55 percent of voters said no.

For months Vision2 opponents have criticized the planning as being rushed.  Tulsa leaders announced the proposal at the beginning of August and four days later it made its way onto the ballot.

In a matter of weeks communities around Tulsa County had developed plans for their multi-million dollar pieces of the pie.

When Nov. 6 came around, voters had to choose whether to OK or nix two propositions for Vision2 on their ballots.

Proposition 1 would have provided $387 million to renovate city-owned buildings at the airport.  It would have also established a closing fund to lure business to Tulsa County.

Proposition 1 failed 56 to 44 percent.

The second proposition would have provided $362 million for projects like dams on the Arkansas River.

Voters also said no to Proposition 2 by a similar margin -- 55 percent to 44 percent.

At a watch party Tuesday night for Vision2 opponents, some said the entire campaign felt like David and Goliath when comparing the spending and even the watch parties.

Vision2 opponents said the tax plan was too rushed, too soon and too vague.

"I hope that now if they want to try and do something like this, that they do handle it in a little bit better way in that they give it more time, they allow for public input and for people to be involved in it and they don't just try to cram it down people's throat in a short period of time," said Rhonda Vuillemont-Smith with Citizens for a Better Vision.

Despite both propositions being rejected by voters, supporters of Vision2 promise to move forward and better the city of Tulsa.

Mayor Dewey Bartlett was joined by County Commissioner John Smaligo at the watch party Tuesday.  They say it's their goal to find other ways to improve the quality of life in northeastern Oklahoma.

Smaligo says they plan to discuss the results in the coming weeks, then decide whether to take another shot at getting a similar proposal on the next ballot.