OKC's MAPS3: Calling All Cars

[Usually I want to keep this blog about innovation and entrepreneurial topics.  From reading a string of comments on MAPS3 in OKC, I wrote this reponse.  I felt it might be good to also post it here. I welcome your comments and discussion.  And I promise I'll get back to writing about startups again after this digression.]

Let me first start off by saying that I firmly believe that OKC Public Safety is understaffed. I agree that we need more feet on the ground because our South side is in desperate need of revitalization.  However I have to call major foul on the representatives of the leadership behind public safety on the MAPS3 issue.

We have over 1,027 uniformed officers and over 300 civilian employees to serve our 1.1 million-strong metro area. Sounds like a lot right? Nope. It’s 0.93 cops per 1,000 people.  National average is 2.8 officers/1,000.  We rank very low on officers per capita, and this does not account for the further burden our annoyingly spread out city places on our officers.  Less cops, more spread out.  It frustrates me that our force is the exact same size as it was in 1989. It boggles my mind.

But this has NOTHING to do with MAPS3 does it?  Monies for public safety, which amount to a whopping 55% of our city’s annual budget, are totally separate from MAPS and the two have no correlation? Wrong. 

And to say the MAPS3 monies won’t be doing good for our city is hogwash. A few points:

1-40 has to be moved. It’s falling down as we speak.  Moving the highway (not part of MAPS3 money) will leave a HUGE tract of land, already largely abandoned and neglected and in need of gentrification.  What will move in then? Would you rather we spend money out of the current budget to do something with it? We have to plug that hole, and doing it with the park, convention center, and other projects in MAPS3 is the way to do it. So to say that MAPS3 “may or may not create jobs” is bullshit.  What is going to create jobs, an abandoned warehouse or a convention center?

Light rail will make downtown safer and cleaner.  And I’m sorry there’s no way to avoid the light rail parking issue in a city this sprawling.  But relieving the traffic in downtown will be huge, and I firmly believe that this light rail project, if successful, will lead to some stations that can transport people from low-income areas to downtown for work.  And by connecting the residential areas of downtown with the corporate areas, will actually reduce the number of cars as a whole.

Roads. Correct, there is no money directly for roads or bridges.  But shit we already spend millions on roads and bridges (granted, lower-income areas are neglected, but that is not uncommon in any city. It’s not right, but it’s a separate issue than MAPS3). What we need desperately, and will get with MAPS3, is sidewalks all over the city, 57 MILES of bike trails, and these are things that will help the people of OKC to get up off their asses.  MAPS3 is a small, but important step in this direction.

River improvements. We have the opportunity to be a world-class rowing destination. Remember the Olympic athletes that got sick last year? We can’t let that happen again. We must make improvements. Also, a public white water kayak facility? Seriously? That is fucking awesome! Needed, probably not. But the kind of forward thinking that will lead to more people willing to move here, better jobs because companies will want to relocate and start up here, and more tax revenue to go to public safety.

Convention center.  This isn’t even worth talking about. The amount of travel and increased economic activity surrounding a convention center is incredible.  The BIO conference has a nearly $100 million economic impact on the host city each year.  That’s one conference.

Why would the contingent behind public safety want to stifle our cities growth?  I firmly believe they do not want to stifle growth.  We were able to become a “major league city” because of MAPS, the Bricktown area is the pride of the state, and the MAPS programs have led to $5 billion in increased economic activity in Oklahoma City.  This increased the tax base and led to significant increases in budget allocation for public safety over the last 7 years (as far back as the financial reporting on okc.gov website goes).

Just staffing budgets for Police and Fire were increased by $5.4 million for the upcoming year in the current budget.  Assuming an insanely high per officer compensation, benefits, etc. of $100k per year per officer, we could more than quintuple our entire police force!  The OKC police department just finished building a $4.6 million dollar emergency response center in downtown OKC.  The stimulus package from last spring allocated $4.9 million for capital projects such as new training facilities, new cars (last I checked they’ve been driving cruisers that are just a step down from Knight Rider already) and a slew of other material needs.  And a similar allocation was made for fire in the Recovery Act.

Now let’s get down to brass tax.  The figure that was given that the police force has the same amount of officers as 1989 is really troubling me.  So I went and looked at the actual budgets for the city of OKC for the last 15 years. 

Amount of budget allocated public safety: 1994 - $79.4M;  2003 – $155.5M; 2008 - $291.9M

Each year the budget was between 50-55% of total funds.  Are you kidding me? We have increased the public safety budget by more than 267% since 1994 and nearly 100% in just the last 5 years? How are they still underfunded?  These figures don’t take into account the stimulus money either.

So have the personnel budgets stayed stagnant? Is all that increase in funds going to upgrading the technologies needed to keep our streets safe? Nope.  Personnel budget for 2003: $36.4M (50:50 split for fire, police). Personnel budget 2008: $67.0 million.  An increase of 84% in just the last 5 years.  And the 2009 budget increased almost 10% over last year.  Well it must just be cost of living adjustments, right? Inflation? Taking the 2003 personnel budget for police and using the number of officers we get $17,721, and for 2008 we get $32,619. First of all, inflation adjusted increase would be only $20,708. So their salaries are increasing at roughly 5 times inflation. That is damn good. Second, these numbers are way low. Average salary for cop in OKC in 2008 was $41,000.  (I personally think it should be higher, that is a dangerous and important job). Is this about right officers?  Frankly I want to know how the hell we spend more than half our budget on you guys, you get millions in stimulus, drive $50,000+ vehicles, and still can’t get the staff you need to keep our streets safe with enough officers.  You should look not to the city but to your leadership.

So what is the deal? Why aren’t we talking about MAPS3?  Well we are. Well remember MAPS for Kids? The city cut out a chunk of MAPS for Kids for public safety.  The portion of sales taxes that came in from OK companies selling products to out of state consumers would be allocated to public safety.  Public safety netted $60 Million from that little carve out. 

The problem is that when MAPS3 was shown to everyone, the cops and firemen said, wait a minute? Where’s our chunk? It wasn’t there.  MAPS3 isn’t about the projects, bad or good, it’s about the money.  Police and fire departments want their cut.  It’s as simple as that. 

So why are cops and fire still fighting against MAPS3? Didn’t Mick Cornett put back in the provision?  Yes. The tax from MAPS for Kids is back in the bill.  It is estimated to net the police and fire forces some $30 million.  So why are they still fighting against MAPS3? Well $30 is only half of $60 million, and they are used to doubling their budget allocations over 5 years.  Shouldn’t they get $120 million?  That is the argument.  That is why they’re trying to block MAPS3.  And the rank-and-file officers are incensed and being manipulated.

I think we should have more officers on the streets. I think we should have the safest city in America, no matter what side of the tracks you are on.  But the OCPD and OCFD’s arguments against MAPS3 disregard for the future of this city, and they need to realize one thing.  You get your money from tax revenue.  Our most powerful tools to increase your budget is to increase taxes, or increase economic activity. I think you would agree that raising taxes is not a good idea (yes MAPS is a sales tax, but it is not additional taxation, taxes stay where they are).  We need to pass MAPS3.  Because if we don’t, you can expect only one thing. Tax revenues will decrease. Your budgets will be cut.  You should be looking to your leadership asking questions, not trying to bring down a good bill that will do a lot of good to improve this city.