Over these past 4 months, I have run a campaign that has offered concrete solutions to problems that we are facing as a community. Today I wanted to offer another solution for our first responders, and to talk about the financial anxiety that people feel in town.
Before I begin, I wanted to address the Parks and Rec Director, Mr. Ruiz’s, point from the 9/2 meeting about the Friends group for Parks and Rec. He is right, it will take some time to get this going. Back in 2022, myself, my wife, and our neighbors rallied to save the Nature Center from the chopping block. We presented the Friends Group idea to the City and followed up for over a year – we did not hear anything back. I know that was before his time, but imagine where we’d be now if the City had listened?
Before you once again raise property taxes and utilities, I want you to understand this:
60% of people cannot afford a medical emergency, 40% do not have $500 dollars in savings, and 20% of people do not have enough food.
This is the fundamental economic reality of our times.
On top of that, for fixed income individuals, 7 of the last 10 years have seen a Social Security cost of living adjustments of less than 3%.
Property taxes have gone up 40% and our utilities at least 25% in the past 5 years. This affects everyone in this community, homeowners and renters a like.
The people who love this community are being financially pushed out by these decisions. You asked why citizen groups are now questioning the budget? It’s because of decisions like the one that you are about to make.
Finally, I called upon the City Manager to negotiate with KU for a payment in lieu of taxes to support our community’s first responders. We can also get creative with the resources in our community. We should begin working with the County to fully staff Consolidated Fire Station #1 near Broken Arrow. This fully equipped fire station is currently manned by a single volunteer. We could hire and train LDCFM first responders and use this Fire Station as a stop gap measure while the new station is built.
It currently takes our first responders six minutes to reach the far ends of town – a lack of oxygen for four minutes can cause brain damage. By working with the County, we could have first responder access closer to K10 which could cut down this number now. This would allow us to reduce call times and save the lives of people in our community.
Thank you for your time.
-Mike Courtney
I love this and thank you. I am over here in the prairie park area campaigning for you. Please don’t be another Bart Littlejon. I think it would be great if we could get even a 1% tax on KU and the hospitals.