Tulsa City Council Budget Special Projects Meeting - June 3, 2026
Tulsa City Council Budget Special Projects Meeting - June 3, 2026
The meeting was called to order at 1:00 p.m. on Wednesday, June 3, 2026. The primary focus was the adoption of the FY2026-27 budget, along with several related ordinances and resolutions. Key discussions included amendments to the Vision Fund surplus allocation, technical changes to the proposed budget, and supplemental appropriations for the current fiscal year.
Discussion Items
- Ordinance Amending Title 43K (Vision Fund Surplus): The ordinance adjusts the allowable uses for the $103 million surplus from the 2016 limited purpose economic development sales tax. Changes include expanded flexibility for the municipal court/lockup project to allow demolition, new construction, rehabilitation, or use for public facilities within the arena district or a convention hotel. Additionally, if grant funding is received for the public safety center, those funds will be reappropriated to other uses under the ordinance.
- Ordinance Amending Title 45 (Use Tax): This restores the use tax allocation to the general fund by removing the 2016 language that dedicated 15% of use tax revenue to debt service for Title 43K, as that debt is no longer needed.
- Budget Technical Changes: Staff reviewed a memo of technical changes to the proposed FY2026-27 budget. Key adjustments include:
- $7.5 million for the Tulsa Zoo's African Wilds exhibit, contingent on the zoo raising $2.5 million from other sources.
- $7 million in FY2028 for homelessness programs (reduced from the originally proposed $17 million), with $500,000 set aside for shelter operations.
- $100,000 from the general fund to seed a Route 66 maintenance fund.
- No change in FY2027 for emergency management funding, but a recommendation to reassess in FY2028 after hiring a new director.
- Various departmental adjustments, including increased funding for animal services ($185,000 total for chemicals and food), a website developer position moved from police to communications, and demolition funding of $840,000 for two properties (one estimated at $495,000, the other at $345,000).
- Mental Health and Homelessness Funding: The small budget committee recommended funding a forensic assertive community treatment (ACT) team using opioid dollars ($400,000 in the first year) through a future budget amendment. The COPES 911 mental health program will continue to be monitored for potential future scaling, but no FY2027 change was recommended.
- Mayoral Transfer Authority (Item 7): Ordinance authorizing the mayor to transfer unexpended appropriations up to $100,000 within the same department and fund, expiring July 31, 2026. Councilors requested a monthly written report to the full council detailing these transfers, which was added to the ordinance.
- Supplemental Appropriations for FY2025-26 (Item 17): Approves $9,415,000 from unappropriated fund balance in the general fund, plus amounts in other funds, to cover year-end deficits. Major drivers include police department raises and overtime ($6.2 million), fire department raises, and animal services costs.
- ARPA Fund Reallocation (Item 18): Reallocates $180,408.53 from completed ARPA projects (e.g., Rudisill, Housing Choice Voucher program) to finance ARPA administration and pre-approved plans program recommended by the 3H Task Force.
- Ratification of TPFA Debt Agreements (Items 8-16): Nine resolutions ratifying capital improvement project agreements with the Tulsa Public Facilities Authority and Tulsa Parking Authority for previously issued debt.
Key Outcomes
- The ordinance amending Title 43K was presented with the noted changes; discussion indicated support.
- The ordinance amending Title 45 was presented with no questions.
- The technical change memo was reviewed, and councilors expressed general agreement with the recommendations, including the zoo funding and homelessness reduction.
- The mayoral transfer ordinance was amended to include a monthly reporting requirement to the full council.
- The supplemental appropriations for FY2025-26 were approved as presented.
- The ARPA fund reallocation was approved.
- All items appeared to be on track for adoption at the regular council meeting; no formal votes were taken during this worksession.
Meeting Transcript
Okay. All right. Welcome to the 1 p.m. budget special projects meeting. Today is Wednesday, June 3rd, of course, year 2026. Item number one. I call this meeting to order. Two ordinance amending Title 43K of Tulsa Revised Ordinances, which is the City of Tulsa's expenditure policy for the 2017 limited purpose economic development temporary sales tax amending the projects and purposes for which expenditures of proceeds may lawfully be made providing severability. This has the emergency clause. So this is on the Brown ordinance for the surplus 103 million in the vision fund. So last time we talked about a few modifications that you all would like to see. One of those was on the municipal court lockup jail item. That one was to provide some more flexibility for possible uses. So you will see the additional flexibility in there to include demolition of the court facility, a new court facility, including relocation cost or rehab, depending on the final plan. The public facilities with inside the arena district and also for use on a convention hotel. So still may all be used for a courts or jail facility, but this does provide flexibility on funding options. And then the other major change was down in section E, and that's related to the public safety center. So if the city does receive any sort of grant funding related to the public safety center, then those funds would be reappropriated to a different use that's governed by the ordinance. So those are the high-level changes. Just a small question. Have we already fully submitted our grant application? It's on track to get submitted. I think it's next week or the week after. I mean, for the uh grant to be when we get notification if we were no, it's a it's a rolling application, so you can apply it at any time, but I don't know that there's a decision time on that. So that's why appropriating the full amount, the 25 lets you sign your construction contracts and get moving forward because you know all of the funds are available right now. Anybody else have any other questions? Anything else in there that you want to? No, everything else, I think stayed the same from the original presentation that you received on this. Okay. Nobody has any questions. Do you I already asked? Okay, all right, and moving on to item number three, ordinance amending title 45, Tulsa Revised Ordinances Chapter 1. Titled City of Tulsa Use of Tax Code, Section 119 ending and dedicating uh 15% uh of use tax revenue uh for debt services in support of the fund created by Title 43K, which is no longer needed for such purposes. This also carries an emergency clause. So this uh this is consistent with our discussions on the budget and with the vision fund. This will just take the language away that was added in 2016 since the money is no longer needed to help with the debt service, and it'll put it back into the general fund, which is where use tax typically goes. So it'll just restore this ordinance really to the way it was prior to 2016. Anyone have any questions? Wow. Great. Okay. Um item number four. I'm going to read four, five, and six together. Four ordinance adopting the annual budget of the city of Tulsa for the fiscal year 2026-27, ordering the transfer of enterprise income of the general fund, appropriating unexpected balances for grant funds and capital project funds for fiscal year 2026-27 ordering and directing compensation and filing of levy requirements for the 2627 sinking fund of the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma revising fund balance 10% as an emergency operating and the general fund approving an emergency telephone fee of 5%. For the calendar year 27, ordering the filing of the city of Tulsa budget fiscal year 26-27 with the state auditor and inspector of the state of Oklahoma and ordering this ordinance to take effect immediately after its adoption and approval by review and discussion of proposed technical changes and to the proposed city of Tulsa FY2627 budget capital plan and six ordinance approving and adopting the capital improvement plan for the city of Tulsa for fiscal year 27 through 31 as part of the FY2627 annual budget. I got one. If it's okay, I think we'd suggest starting with the technical change memo, and we'll like go through that. Would you mind? Would you pull the technical change memo? Sorry, I left that stuff down there.
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