Wagoner County voters to face 8 tax questions in March

Written By: John Dobberstein

(OKLAHOMA) Wagoner County voters will be facing a special election in March as county officials seek to makes some sales tax levies permanent and raise additional money through new sales taxes for several projects.

Read this story on The Broken Arrow Sentinel here. 

Eight propositions will appear on the March 5 primary ballot, according to presentation made recently by Wagoner County Engineer Rachael Cooper to the Broken Arrow City Council.

Some questions are being raised, however, about the communication process for getting the information to the public and in front of the Wagoner County Commission in a timely manner. 

Cooper admitted no public hearings had been scheduled about the tax proposals but they would be forthcoming in the next 60 days.

The first proposition is the establishment of a county lodging excise tax of 5%. The funds would be used by Wagoner County to bolster tourism and build and maintain public spaces and recreation. The tax would apply to furnished rooms and recreational vehicles parked in RV parks for no more than 30 days. 

Cooper noted the cities of Broken Arrow and Wagoner have lodging taxes so it would only impact those staying in unincorporated areas. “We’re looking primarily at Airbnb and BRBO type rentals,” Cooper said. “We do have a hotel and a resort, several RV parks and a conference center in unincorporated Wagoner County that this would impact.” 

The county’s principal tourism is the Jean Pierre Chouteau Trail, a 59-mile recreational trail established by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the late 1970s. 

“It is currently in disrepair and has not been maintained for a number of years, but it is the longest recreational trail in the state and it is a gem that the county is proud to have and would like to reestablish it,” Cooper said.

Resolution two would be a county roads and bridges sales tax that would be permanent. The county currently has a 0.8% sales tax that goes to roads and bridges that is on a 10-year renewal. 

Cooper said $2.3 million goes to each maintenance district out of the sales tax fund each year, which is 68% of total the county can use for roads and bridges. With the county having 864 miles of certified roads it comes out to about $11,500 per mile. If the sales tax was lost — since it isn’t permanent — it would reduce per-mile funding to $7,848 per mile. It would also eliminate county engineering, county economic development and emergency management, Cooper said. 

“They are all funded through the use tax, which is tied to this,” she said. “If this is not permanent, the potential to bond off of additional use tax is eliminated. The bond would only be possible for 10 years and so that eliminates some potential of funding projects with our current tax base rather than going out for a vote for additional taxes.”

Two more resolutions would make sales-tax related funding permanent for a sheriff’s department operations and general county government.

Another resolution would divert .015 of a permanent .30 sales tax to establish an ambulance trust. Wagoner County relies on neighboring counties and other municipalities to provide ambulance services but county leaders want changes. 

“Ambulance service response times are abysmal. You have in some instances wait times of over an hour, even in city limits,” Cooper said. 

“A responding agency may respond to an unincorporated area and then a need would take place within that responding agency’s jurisdiction to which case the wait would begin. 

“This effort would be to reduce the wait times and provide a needed public service to unincorporated areas, but also provide ambulance services that would have interlocal agreements with all of our other agencies. So the goal would not be to reduce any ambulances, but to just enhance our response times and provide higher level of safety for our citizens.”

Another resolution would create a temporary sales tax levy proposed for the purpose of creating parking and pedestrian access at the Wagoner County courthouse. It would also allow for some renovations in the courthouse. The goal would be a $10 million fund and the tax would be for 30 years at 0.125.

Voters will also be asked to approve a new 0.25 sales tax levy to fund a county jail trust. 

Cooper said a properly trained, equipped and professional staff that is held accountable by leadership that takes a more proactive approach, is the first and best line of defense from excessive judgments. 

Cooper said the use of county general fund as a primary or secondary source of funding may blur the lines of legal separation. So the goal is to provide some level of separation between the jail and county government. 

“There are several jail trusts in the state. No jail trusts have received a judgment against them. They’ve settled a few cases in the past, but they’ve not received any judgments,” Cooper said.

“There are several cases in the state where judgments have been rendered well over $30 million. A jail trust would create some separation and provide a professional staff that can be paid in excess of what our current staff can be paid in hopes that that professionalism and that separation would protect us and provide some liability.”

Another resolution would create a 1.25% sales tax levy for the funding of a new Wagoner County fairgrounds. The goal is to generate $10 million over 30 years. Cooper said the current fairgrounds in Coweta is nearly 50 years old, is undersized and has poor accessibility. 

A new fairground location in partnership with the city of Coweta will be located at State Highway 51 and the Muskogee Turnpike, which is centrally located in the county. That facility will house Oklahoma State University Extension and will have exhibit area stalls and conference space, with the anticipated needed square footage being 75,000. 

“The combination of eight propositions, if approved by the voters, would result in an investment in tourism, an investment in criminal justice, an investment in county services, infrastructure and law enforcement, and investment in public safety via the countywide ambulance and an investment in youth education and agricultural preservation,” Cooper said. 

The resolutions are as follows: Resolution 2023-050,  Resolution 2023-139, Resolution 2023-140, Resolution 2023-141, Resolution 2023-142, Resolution 2023-143, Resolution 2023-144, and Resolution 2023-145.

Not everyone is happy with the way the propositions surfaced. 

District 1 Wagoner County Commissioner James Hanning said information was given to him about the propositions the morning of a recent County Commission meeting and he was asked to vote to whether approve the language with no prior knowledge. 

Hanning said he didn’t know how the numbers were created but he was unsure 0.8% would be satisfactory or even enough to maintain roads in the county.

“We all, as well as Broken Arrow see the destruction of our roads and how much more it’s costing us to fix them. So I don’t know where the numbers came from. I’m simply telling you they were never presented to me,” he told the Broken Arrow City Council after Cooper’s presentation to them. 

Doug Longnecker, a Wagoner County resident, said information on the resolutions was posted late on a Friday and the County Commission meeting was the following Monday at 9 a.m. 

“Nobody had time to analyze any of this.

This was acted on as if it was an emergency. It was said that it was highly imperative that this was passed that Monday so we can bond against the zero point eight,” he said.

“And $10 million isn’t going to do anything for that courthouse over 30 years,” he added. “That courthouse is going to absolutely crumble around you if you spend $10 million on that and expect that to be your 30-year plan. I don’t know if you’ve been to Wagoner County Courthouse, but $10 million won’t touch it.“