The Tulsa City Council unanimously approved Mayor G.T. Bynum’s proposed $846 million fiscal year 2020 budget Wednesday.
The budget includes increases in employee compensation, cash reserves and funding for new police officers.
Officers’ starting annual pay will increase from $46,426 to $56,763 to put it in line with the starting pay of Oklahoma City police officers. Firefighters’ starting annual pay will increase from approximately $40,000 to $46,000.
Funding for 90 new police officers and 25 new firefighters is also included the 2020 budget.
The city’s Rainy Day Fund will triple under the new budget, jumping from $2 million to $6 million.
Bynum has said previously that the reserve funds are needed in case of an economic downturn.
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“That would force layoffs and wipe away all the progress we have made in Tulsa Police Department staffing over the last three years,” Bynum said last month.
Pay increases are also in store for the city’s trade and labor positions, which the city has had a difficult time filling. The budget approved Wednesday would increase pay for those employees by as much as 10 percent.
In an effort to promote ridership on the city’s new Bus Rapid Transit system, scheduled to begin operating in late August, the budget funds fares for the first month.
Tulsans will see an average increase of 1 percent on their water rates under the new budget. Sewer and stormwater rates will increase by an average of 9 percent.
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An old landfill site breached by floodwaters along Bird Creek at Oxley Nature Center got a closer look by federal, state and city officials. They need to come up with a plan — one that might address more than just one breach site. One thing was clear, however. It won’t be a simple matter.
Read the story: Oxley Nature Center covered in trash after old city dump exposed during flooding
