I am still undecided about MAPS 3. Today I watched Flashpoint on KFOR, which was a “debate” about MAPS 3. It wasn’t much of a debate.
There was one guy, Porter Davis, who clearly is not for MAPS 3. Arrayed around him were three fervent MAPS 3 supporters, Kirk Humphreys, Mike Turpen, and Ron Norick.
Davis tried to make points about what he thought was wrong about MAPS 3. While the other side also tossed out rebuttal, there were also a lot of personal attacks, particularly from Humphreys. He did make a couple valid points pertaining to statements made by Davis about Humphreys land ownership interests, and Davis admitted he had bad information, but Humphreys kept repeating “you were wrong” probably five or six or more times. Humphreys also made a personal attack on Davis pertaining to Davis moving out of Oklahoma to live somewhere else due to concerns about Y2K. About what I would expect of him.
Even Mike Turpen got into the personal attack mode, demanding to know if Davis had visited the MAPS stuff already built, and talking about how many investment dollars had been spent in response to the public money that have been spent.
I don’t know Davis, for that matter I don’t know that I know anyone who knows him. But I think he got the shaft on KFOR this morning. And good for him to go on that program, and know that was going to happen.
Davis mentioned his website this morning (http://killthemapstax.com/). I visited the website, and find that some of the information on it seems to make sense.
I’m going to read the election ballot today and come to a decision about how to vote. I am really not happy about how some of MAPS 3 is happening, but I do want OKC to advance and grow some. I don’t know that we need to spend somewhere between $300M and $500M for Myriad/Cox Convention Center replacement. But maybe as a corporate jobs program, or a local stimulus package, that’s OK. Except that the main benefactors are going to be the already-monied corporate interests.
I’ll update later.
Tags: Flashpoint, KFOR, MAPS 3, Oklahoma City
Bill Hensley's Random Blog 
6 December 2009 at 23:08 |
Bill,
Please take the time to read my blog for more info on why you should NOT VOTE YES on this MAPS
Thank You
John
6 December 2009 at 23:20 |
If 100’s of millions of dollars get spent around Kirks properties, Kirk will benefit, he will gain financially with a major influx of taxpayer dollars to help spur an increase in prices of surrounding real estate. No projects are on the ballot, any future council can cancel or change any project. Mick picks the oversight board,
7 December 2009 at 03:26 |
I reviewed the ballot, and the various attachments expressing the “intent” of the City to do some projects. I also reviewed the Ordinance that the City passed that is contingent on voter approval (BTW, I was not able to find the Ordinance on the city website, and it was not attached to the ballot and other documents; I find this a suspicious oversight to be sure).
I finally found the ordinance on a separate website:OKC Ordinance 23,942
Based on all of this, I have decided to vote NO on MAPS 3. It is too vague, and too rushed. The City treated the Ordinance as an Emergency, when that’s not appropriate for something we are being asked to spend almost $0.75B on (yes, three-quarters of a billion dollars, US).
I do not like the idea in particular of replacing the Myriad, when we have spent a hell of a lot of money on it already. It’s a nice facility, I’ve been in there for conferences twice in the past couple months.
I do not like the idea that the projects being called out are not in what I would consider a legally obligated form. In other words, the Ordinance talks about most any “public improvement project”, and the projects are expressed at the “current intent” of the Council.
If they work on these objectives, and maybe also work with some of the monied interests in OKC to trim down things like replacing the Myriad, then they could have some public comment and try again in the spring or summer.
I already said that I think that the people selling it as “no tax increase” are lying.
So all of this leaves me to vote against MAPS 3. I will head down to the Election Board tomorrow for early voting.
7 December 2009 at 03:47 |
It is rare to have someone think things through, get information and then make up their mind. I am impressed with your process and reasoning. David