Oklahoma County Commissioner Jason Lowe’s proposal to put a public safety sales tax before voters in April fell apart during today’s board meeting when it failed to gain support from District 2 Commissioner Brian Maughan and District 3 Commissioner Myles Davidson. The tax would have bridged a massive funding gap to build the county’s new jail in southeast OKC, while also providing funds for its operation and other law enforcement, fire and infrastructure needs.
Earlier this month, Lowe proposed a 5/8-cent — or 0.625 percent — permanent sales tax to be levied on purchases within the county. Oklahoma County is the only one of the state’s 77 counties without some sort of sales tax. A $260 million property tax bond package was approved for jail construction by voters in 2022, but that number is well short of what is needed to fund the project, which has ballooned to a cost of more than $700 million.
In his pitch to fellow commissioners Wednesday, Lowe said it’s time to do something about a problem that has plagued the county since the current jail opened in 1991.
“We don’t have the resources at this time to build a new jail,” Lowe said. “We’re still $500 million short. I don’t think anyone here would move forward with construction of a home if you don’t have the money to pay for it. It just doesn’t make any economic sense.”
Lowe told Maughan and Davidson it is past time to find a solution to the jail problem, and his resolution on Wednesday’s agenda proposed an April 7 election date.
“On numerous occasions, I have spoken about the need to allow the voters — not the politicians — to decide the issue, to decide the future of Oklahoma County’s jail crisis and the need to build, operate and maintain a new county jail,” Lowe said. “That’s why I am offering this ballot measure today, because I was elected to offer solutions and address problems.”
As he articulated Wednesday, Lowe’s plan called for building an 1,800-bed facility and dissolving the jail trust that has managed operations since 2020. Lowe said the jail should be returned to the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office, which had operated the facility until the trust took over. Sheriff Tommie Johnson has said he is willing to take over operations of the jail, and he voiced support for Lowe’s sales tax proposal.
“Enough is enough,” Lowe told commissioners. “We have to get this done. I ask for a second.”
Neither Maughan nor Davidson spoke up, despite Davidson’s prior pronouncement that “people are ready” for a sales tax vote to solve the jail conundrum. Maughan, the board’s chairman since September, ultimately declared that Lowe’s motion died for lack of a second.
“I’m disappointed that we are not taking action,” Lowe said after the meeting. “There is a jail crisis taking place, and nothing is being done about it. We keep waiting for the right time. Now is the right time, and that’s why I brought it forward.”
Lowe said he would be unlikely to support any plan moving forward that does not include money to help boost funding of diversion programs in the county, as his proposal would have.
“I’m hard-pressed to support any new tax proposal that does not focus on rehabilitation over incarceration and also doesn’t include juvenile programs,” he said. “If plans are introduced that include those items, then I would take a hard look at them.”
Wednesday’s misfire marks the latest political wreck on a long and winding road to improve the Oklahoma County Jail, which has seen nearly 60 deaths people since mid-2020.
OKC chamber not on board — yet
On Tuesday, the Greater OKC Chamber of Commerce said in a statement to The Oklahoman that it would not support Lowe’s sales tax plan at this time.
Maughan, who had raised concerns that Lowe’s proposal lacked the sort of community backer needed to pitch a tax to voters, said Wednesday he believes the chamber or another entity may eventually support some kind of sales tax plan, but that it may not be for the full amount needed to build the new jail as planned. Maughan estimated earlier this month it would take about $1.5 million to fund a campaign to sell a sales tax to voters. The county is barred from spending its own money on the effort, which would require a major advertising campaign.
“I’ve made clear all along that whatever plan we come out with needs to have broad community support. We need to have secured funding for a campaign, and I haven’t been able to identify that yet,” Maughan said after the meeting. “I’ve been working with partners to try to get that done. I think we’re close. And I don’t think this (5/8-cent sales tax) amount is going to be something that will get that buy-in. So it’ll probably be a different proposal, but I have not gotten that secured. So even if I want the money — and we need it, understandably, on the construction gap cost right now — it doesn’t matter if you don’t have support to get it passed. You can’t run it. And so for me, it was just that simple.”
Davidson has proposed a plan of his own that he calls the “Oklahoma County Public Investment Plan,” which also calls for the same 5/8-cent sales tax rate that Lowe’s plan did. But Davidson claimed his plan is different from Lowe’s.
“In Lowe’s plan, there’s juvenile affairs, there’s diversion, there’s a lot of things that the state should be paying their fair share on, and they don’t currently,” Davidson told reporters following Wednesday’s meeting. “We’ve negotiated with the Office of Juvenile Affairs year after year after year. And District 1 — not necessarily Commissioner Lowe — but District 1 has led those charges for years. And then our diversion courts, the state needs — the legislature needs to fund our diversion courts. It’s just that plain and simple.”
Still, Davidson said something needs to be done to complete the new jail project, which includes a new behavioral health center already being built on the same property at 1901 E. Grand Blvd.
“There’s going to have to be some form of tax to get this moving forward,” he said. “And I refuse to do a property tax, because that’s just not possible.”
Davidson said commissioners still have about two weeks to act if they want to put a proposed sales tax on the April ballot, but he did not commit to that timeline. Oklahoma statutes require ballot measures to be filed no fewer than 90 days before a proposed election date.
“I’m not sure that April gives us enough time to run a proper campaign,” Davidson said. “That’s a quick turnaround. And this is going to be a campaign that we’re going to have to build coalitions. We’re going to have to build buy-in. We’ve got a lot that we’ve got to get done. And sure, we could probably run it in April. We may even be able to pass it in April. That’s going to cost a lot of money, and when we’re struggling to find any, that makes it a very difficult thing.”
Matt Patterson
Matt Patterson has spent 20 years in Oklahoma journalism covering a variety of topics for The Oklahoman, The Edmond Sun and Lawton Constitution. He joined NonDoc in 2019. Email story tips and ideas to matt@nondoc.com.
