Mayor G.T. Bynum and the Tulsa City Council held a news conference Wednesday to announce the schedule and timeline for Vision Tulsa projects.
Approved by voters in April 2016, Vision Tulsa will help support numerous transformative development projects, strengthen public safety departments and continue the improvement of the City's street and transportation systems.
Voters approved the funding for the projects in April. @gtbynum says the funds will begin coming this April and he says 80% of funding (1)
— Brian Miller KJRH (@Brian_Miller_TV) January 18, 2017
(2) will be secured within first 5 years of plan
— Brian Miller KJRH (@Brian_Miller_TV) January 18, 2017
The funding for Vision Tulsa is coming into focus much quicker than city leaders expected. Voters approved the tax hike to help pay for 37 projects to improve Tulsa.
On Wednesday, city leaders talked about where they are in the process of securing the money to pay for the projects.
Bynum says they will be using bonds to secure the future funding.
Projects that will be receiving ongoing funding include $10 million that is slated to be used for retaining and recruiting teachers in a state that has seen the floodgates open as teachers abandon ship.
Hoping to address a statewide problem of keeping those teachers, Bynum says that part of the plan isn't set in stone just yet and the idea has evolved since city leaders first began discussing it in earnest three years ago.
"It started out with the notion of having a teacher village that new teachers were coming to town could live at and live together in a communal setting," Bynum said. "I think it's moved now towards more of a continuing education and leadership development but will be finalizing that in the next couple of months as to specifically which incentives those will be."
The City of Tulsa started accruing sales tax funding for the Vision Tulsa program on Jan. 1, 2017.
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