Mayor wants to add 4.3 million dollars to 3rd penny tax proposal for American Airlines

Summary: At Thurday's Tulsa City Council Meeting, Mayor LaFortune dropped a corporate welfare bomb during the Mayor's Report portion of meeting. Citizens in attendance were somewhat surprised to actually see the Mayor "in persona" at the meeting. In some circles the Mayor's persistence absence during the so-called Mayor's report has earned LaFortune the title of "No Show Bill," mimicking famed Country and Western's legendary George Jones "No Show Jones" nickname. The Mayor's attendance at the meeting is an excellent indicator that Tulsa's campaign season is in full swing. The Mayor spoke on two items at the meeting - To urge support for the resolution to eliminate substandard housing in Tulsa, and to announce that he is adding $4.3 million dollars to his 3rd penny sales tax proposal. The additional money will be used to build two hangars for American Airlines use. American supposedly needs more space and capacity at it's Tulsa facility with their transition from a cost center to a profit center. I find this ironic timing since earlier on Thursday, the Tulsa World reported that AMR Corp., the parent company of American Airlines had a whopper of a forth quarter loss of $604 million dollars. American attributed higher fuel prices as the major culprit. The airlines has already benefited from Tulsa's corporate welfare with Vision 2025 to the tune of $22 million dollars as well as receiving upgrades in infrastructure from the City of Tulsa. With staggering loses and pressure from competition, I wonder if American Airlines will be Tulsa's next Great Plains Airlines fiasco? A venture that has cost the taxpayers of Tulsa and Oklahoma dearly and continues to "cha ching" us today. I'm interested in your thoughts on the Mayor's announcement. Vol 2 No 2 Tulsa Topics PodCast is linked below with audio of Mayor's report on this item. Give it a quick listen and let me know your take on this proposal. Feel free to comment on this post or send an email to Tulsa Topics. iTunes Tulsa Topics Podcast Page Comments can be made by sending an email at tulsatopics-AT-gmail.com (replace the -AT- with @) or clicking on the graphic directly below.