TULSA'S ELECTION HEADQUARTERS: Taylor, Bartlett campaigns talk jobs

While public safety and streets have held prominence in Tulsa's 2013 mayoral campaign, economic issues will also get a thorough airing before next Tuesday's election.

Former Mayor Kathy Taylor announced a five-point program to create jobs and retain workers on Friday.

“Government doesn't create jobs, it's businesses like these that do,” said Taylor, referring to three business owners who joined her at the podium for a press briefing on her jobs plan.

They included Larry Mocha, President and CEO of Apsco, Inc., Kayvon Olomi, co-founder of Whiteboard and founder of AppTank, and Wynesha Turner, owner of Turner's Tiny Tots.

Taylor summed up her program by saying "Our...plan is going to talk about work force, it's going to talk about reducing crime, impacting education, improving our infrastructure, and creating an open and accountable government."

She calls it her "Back to basics plan for Jobs and the Economy."

But Dan Patten, current Mayor Dewey Bartlett's campaign manager, tells KRMG "it's really easy to talk about your plans, and what you think you want to do. But it's a lot more beneficial to the voters to actually look at what each candidate did, and under Kathy Taylor Tulsa lost 18,000 jobs. There's no running from that, there's no hiding from that, that's a fact. Now, with Dewey's policies, we've gained 9,000 new jobs."

Taylor's contention is that Tulsa has a bad reputation as a "business-friendly" city.

A recent survey by Thumbtack.com, in partnership with the Kauffman Foundation, gave Tulsa an F for ease of starting a business.

Oklahoma City got a B+ while Dallas and Austin, Texas both received A+ grades.