Credit Matt Trotter / KWGS
After eight months, half-day furloughs every Friday have come to their expected end for hundreds of City of Tulsa employees.
The furloughs were implemented to help the city deal with with a $13 million budget shortfall. Mayor G.T. Bynum said current fiscal year revenue is staying within a range where extending the furloughs is not necessary, but he and the city council are gearing up for another budget shortfall in FY22.
"The goal for me — and I imagine for my colleagues on the council, too — is that we want to make those reductions and not do it through another furloughing. I think furloughs … are a necessary thing from an emergency standpoint, but they’re not a good, long-term budgetary option," Bynum said.