MAPS 3 proposal generates debate

"This is the wrong time to extend this burden on the taxpayers,” Davis said. "The taxpayers of Oklahoma City need a break. The businesses in Oklahoma City need a break.”

Davis said he represents a loosely-organized coalition of Tea Party groups and other conservative action groups.

"He’s absolutely wrong and he needs to be called out,” Mayor Mick Cornett said in response to many of Porter’s remarks.

Dozens of people waving Not This MAPS campaign materials cheered as Davis spoke on the steps of City Hall. Many were firefighters or police officers.

Also in the crowd were about a dozen people waving Yes for MAPS campaign materials.

Cornett heads the Yes for MAPS campaign, which is organized by the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber. The city’s police and fire unions organized the Not This MAPS campaign.

The MAPS 3 proposal would extend a current penny sales tax another seven years and nine months. MAPS 3, which would not raise taxes, seeks to generate $777 million for a downtown park, new convention center, streetcar system, river improvements, sidewalks, trails, fairgrounds improvements and senior aquatic centers.

Davis outlined 10 reasons to vote no against MAPS 3. They dealt mostly with tax concerns and economic problems.

"The big momentum that the yes supporters keep talking about is the momentum to keep the Oklahoma City taxpayers taxed with this 17-year-old temporary sales tax,” Davis said. "This tax is 17 years old. We need to let it expire.”

In fact, the MAPS penny sales tax has expired before. There was no MAPS sales tax between July 1999, when the first MAPS tax expired, and January 2002, when the MAPS For Kids tax began, according to city records.

Roy Williams, president of the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber, said Oklahoma City’s momentum isn’t about continuing a tax; it is about continuing to improve the city through initiatives like MAPS that have earned the city accolades in national publications such as Forbes, BusinessWeek and others.

"That kind of momentum comes along once in a lifetime. That’s the kind of momentum that is taking place in Oklahoma City and is being recognized nationally and internationally,” Williams said. "Every city in the United States is envious of what is going on in Oklahoma City right now, and that is the kind of momentum we are looking at continuing.”

Davis also claimed MAPS 3 is a "bailout for downtown developers” who own property in the area it seeks to improve. He specifically targeted former Mayor Kirk Humphreys, who owns the abandoned Downtown Airpark south of the Oklahoma River.

"MAPS 3 is not, to my knowledge, is not spending any money within a half of a mile of my property,” Humphreys said. "That’s just a ridiculous charge from people who don’t know what they’re talking about.”

A Web site, www.killthemapstax.com, launched by the groups Davis represents, says the groups are seeking to raise $3,500 for a targeted mailing to Oklahoma City voters.

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