County approves sales tax vote
Oct. 17—A proposed countywide sales tax vote to fund shared police, fire and emergency services projects was approved Tuesday by Muskogee Board of County Commissioners.
The 0.849% sales tax proposal would provide funds for joint facilities in Muskogee, Fort Gibson, Haskell and Warner. General Counsel John Tyler Hammons said the projects would total approximately $60 million.
"Once those $60 million worth of projects are completed, the tax would would automatically rotate down to 0.5%, with 0.35% to go to EMS to fund its operation and 0.15% to go to Muskogee County Public Safety Trust to provide those safety programs," Hammons said.
Muskogee County EMS executive director Laurel Havens said the county was awaiting the outcome of the city's Go Bond proposal before moving forward on its ideas.
"After the Go Bond was decided to not go forward, we came up with this project," Havens said. "With many conversations, the city was brought in with us for this project. Everything that was in the city project for public safety is now in the county tax."
Paperwork for the vote must be submitted by Nov. 14 to set the Jan. 14, 2025, vote.
Havens said the some of the funds would provide parts and equipment needed by first responders.
"Back when 9-1-1 started, we funded all the radios for the emergency responders," Havens said. "It was a great thing until no one had the money to replace them. So over the last two years or so, responders have been buying parts on eBay to try to keep their radios going; that's what started this conversation."
Laurels also told commissioners the tax would improve funding of EMS. He said the state requires a police, sheriff and fire department, but not an ambulance service.
"When we started having the conversations, people starting realizing one of the big elephants in the room of public safety was EMS," Havens said. "Ten percent of our budget comes from taxes, 90% comes from billing. So in order for you to fully fund EMS, you would have to significantly increase your tax base. This tax, if it passes, would take us to about 30% of our budget. We'll still be the only emergency responder that still has to bill to keep our doors open. But we will no longer bill the citizens of this town for that care."
The sales tax would also fund public safety projects, one of which would build new facilities to house police, fire and EMS.
"The feedback out of 23 meetings with the community is that they wanted to make sure there was money set aside for the buildings to be maintained and we want these buildings to be something we can be proud of and not allowed to degrade and become an eyesore over time," Havens said. "Eighteen million of this is for equipment; the rest of it is for building."
District 3 Commissioner Kenny Payne told the board of the value to Muskogee County residents.
"The $18 million part is a key caveat to this," Payne said. "It should make it easier to provide more coverage in the county and that helps every citizen. And just coverage in general — there's some value in that."
