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Tulsa Top Story - Tulsa voters could decide a street improvement package this summer. Tulsa city councilors say over a billion dollars could be raised over 10 years through general obligation bonds and third-penny sales tax programs devoted to streets and continuing to collect the Tulsa County Four-to-Fix tax and the Vision 2025 sales tax. The plan calls for a special election July 29th.
Tulsa - Governor Brad Henry leads Homeland Security's top official on a tour of tornado-ravaged Picher. Following a survey of the area in a Blackhawk helicopter, Michael Chertoff said it looked like "a nuclear bomb went off." Federal Emergency Management Agency Director David Paulison also was on the tour. He said his organization is different from two years ago and FEMA is in Picher "for the long haul." Both promised assistance as soon as possible, however, it will not be money to rebuild. Picher's status as a superfund sight negates that approach. Relocation assistance will replace the more normal rebuilding help. The current buyout program will not be negatively impacted. In fact, the officials say they may speed it up to help the people of Picher get their lives back to normal.
Tulsa - School officials in two Ottawa County school districts have canceled classes for the rest of the school year after a massive tornado swept through the area. State Superintendent Sandy Garrett says she'll allow the Picher-Cardin and Quapaw districts a waiver from the state law that mandates students must receive 175 days of instruction per school year. The state Board of Education must formally approve the districts' requests. Both districts already had canceled classes on Monday and yesterday in the wake of Saturday's EF-4 twister, which leveled much of Picher's residential district and resulted in seven deaths. The tornado damage ultimately could hurry the closure of the Picher-Cardin district, where enrollment has dropped precipitously in recent years as hundreds of residents have left the area after accepting state and federal buyouts. Picher and Cardin are located in the Tar Creek Superfund area, one of the nation's most polluted sites because of waste leftover from now-closed lead and zinc mines that operated in the region.
Tulsa - Voters reject both Tulsa Community College bond issues. The first, a $76 million dollar proposal for capital improvements only received 45 percent approval. It would have funded construction of new facilities at all of the college's campuses including $16 million for a new learning center in Owasso. The other proposal would have added seven tenths of a mill to the property tax to provide money to expand programs at the school. It only gained 43 percent approval. TCC President Tom McKeon says he believes a deteriorating economic climate led to the defeat of both proposals. He says they'll analyze what was put on the ballot and hope to bring back an alternative proposal at a more opportune time.
Tulsa - State tax collections have failed to meet expectations for the fourth month in a row. But officials say a revenue cushion built up from earlier collections should allow the state to pay its bills for the current fiscal year ending June 30 without budget cuts. A revenue report released Tuesday by State Treasurer Scott Meacham showed that tax collections in April were 3.5 percent below the prior year and 3.4 percent below the estimate upon which the current budget is based. Both individual income and corporate taxes were down, as were sales taxes. The state's revenue picture was bolstered by gross production taxes on oil and gas, which were up 85 percent from the previous year.
Tulsa - Gov. Brad Henry has vetoed legislation that would have changed the way state workers pay membership dues to statewide associations through voluntary payroll deductions. Henry vetoed the measure yesterday. He says Section 3 of the bill is ambiguous, eliminates competition and discriminates against groups with less than 2,000 members that currently collect dues. The bill would have raised the minimum membership of groups eligible for collection of dues by voluntary payroll deduction from 1,000 to 2,000 dues-paying members. The groups include the Oklahoma Public Employees Association or any other statewide association limited to state employee membership. It also allowed the Department of Corrections to make voluntary payroll deductions for employees to the Correctional Peace Officer Foundation.
Tulsa - A new report shows Oklahoma home prices are up 3.5 percent in the first quarter compared to last year although the number of homes sold is down 12 percent The Oklahoma Association of Realtors report says the average price of a home in the state at the end of March was $147,407 compared to $142,472 in March 2007. The average price is down from nearly $148,500 at the end of December 2007. The report also show 9,689 homes sold during the first three months of the year compared to more than 11,000 sold during the first three months of last year. Nationwide the average home price is down 7.7 percent in the first quarter with the hard hit areas being on the coasts and in the industrial Midwest.
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