In the end, the KMT’s Top 10 list leads me to draw several conclusions about the parties involved on that side of the issue:
1. Many have competing interests.
2. Most of the people crafting the talking points seem unfamiliar with actually running large organizations or economic development projects.
3. A lot of the rhetoric involved requires people to maintain a deep distrust of anyone with money or influence.
4. Many of the arguments act as if there’ll never been another time to address other issues (like public safety).
5. A lot of non-OKC residents certainly love to pile on with their opinions.
6. Everyone ignores that even with the current 1% rate in place, Oklahoma City still has one of the lowest sales tax rates in the metro area.
Perhaps most importantly, the folks in the KMT movement don’t seem to be part of the cooperation, collaboration and trust that has made our city so successful in recent times. If you go to other cities, and talk to business leaders or economic developers or city managers or local policy makers, Oklahoma City is the envy of people around the country because of our ability to pull together for common causes. Growing a city takes a lot of time, effort, planning, and foresight. Most of all, I would argue that it takes trust. That’s historically been in short supply both here and other places. The people who’ve been at the front of this city’s efforts to reshape itself into a thriving community have demonstrated their trustworthiness. I, for one, want to continue to dance with who brought us. I hope everyone else dances as well.
Thanks for reading.
