While the city’s use of sales tax revenue through MAPS has gained the most attention over the past decade, the city has also turned to tax increment financing (TIF) as another way to leverage tax dollars into economic development. By creating a TIF district, the city provides public incentives to developers with the increase in […]
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Posted inNews
Storm Shelter funding debate gets heated
In an exclusive News9/Oklahoma Gazette poll, 52 percent of Oklahoma City residents “strongly supported” public funding to help build storm shelters in public schools. Another 26 percent “somewhat supported” the idea. The survey included 980 city residents, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.13 percent. Though, when asked where the funding should […]
Posted inNews
Why fund the Oklahoma Arts Council?
I’ve watched state policymakers and legislators ask this question and inexplicably seem unable to come to a fairly simple conclusion. The Oklahoma Arts Council (OAC) is one of the leanest-operating state agencies in Oklahoma, improving the lives of Oklahomans from Frederick to Miami and Broken Bow to Black Mesa, seeding the success of hundreds of […]
Posted inNews
If we build it …
Convention center exhibit hall space increased 36 percent nationally from 2000 to 2011 while attendance at convention center events fell 1.7 percent during the same time period, according to Heywood Sanders, a professor of public administration at the University of Texas at San Antonio and the nation’s leading expert on convention centers and city planning. […]
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Still fighting
David Green The crafts retailer has until Oct. 21 to file a response to a 251-page appeal filed by U.S. Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli and other government attorneys who want the high court to hear more about why the chain should or should not include contraceptives in its required healthcare coverage to employees. Hobby […]
Posted inMusic
Noise for toys
Photo: Mark Hancock ’Tis the season for many things: joy, coexistence, pageantry. Mostly, however, ’tis the season for giving… and music — because really, which season isn’t? Friday night at the Blue Note Lounge, one can experience all of these things, as the venue prepares for its inaugural Rock for Tots toy drive. The event’s […]
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Detour ahead
Bingman, the president pro tempore of the Senate, refused to allow a proposed $40 million bond issue to fund construction on the AICCM to be heard on the Senate floor in May. The state’s bonding capacity, the maximum amount of money from the state budget for debt servicing, has been at the center of Republican […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Bite size
She was the former editor of Oklahoma Living magazine and now works for the National Farm to School Network as the membership and communications associate. Best feature: “I can roll with the punches.” Family: “Husband, Jeff, and Ellie the dog.” Where did you meet? “In college at Cameron University in Lawton, and I lived near […]
Posted inNews
Restoration project
And compared to previous years’ budgets full of bad news, cuts and declining revenue, this one wasn’t so bad. “Relative to last year, it’s good economic times, but if you look at the trends that we’ve seen, it’s really more moderate economic times,” said City Manager Jim Couch. “There are a lot of good things […]
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Passing the gavel
State Superintendent Sandy Garrett took the gavel one last time on Dec. 16 as she chaired her final regular state Board of Education meeting. After two decades at the post, Garrett, who did not run for reelection, is retiring in January, when Superintendent-elect Janet Barresi will be sworn into office. “Certainly, it has really been […]