NEW: Click here to view Councilor Martinson's full presentation online -- no need for PowerPoint.

District 5 Councilor Bill Martinson will present his analysis and an alternative budget for the City of Tulsa for Fiscal Year 2009-10, which begins on July 1. The presentation shows the dramatic rise in public safety spending (since 1969 it's grown 3.3 times faster than the rate of inflation) and the surprising fact that our police and fire operating budgets consume the entire proceeds of our 2% city general fund sales tax and then some. (The "third penny" is for capital improvements.)

According to Martinson, the Mayor's budget would spend $139.2 million on police and fire department expenditures. The two-cent sales tax will only raise only $132.4 million.

Martinson's alternative budget would allocate $127.0 million to police and fire, allowing a reduction of furlough days back to four (the original proposal) and restoring some funding to other departments that had to be cut to meet Mayor Kathy Taylor's budget.

Click here to download Councilor Martinson's PowerPoint presentation (8 MB).