Oklahoma County’s plan to plug the funding gap for its new jail quietly collapsed last month after commissioners declined to pursue a sales tax increase. Voters already approved a $260 million bond, but the price tag for the new facility has ballooned to more than three times that amount. While Commissioner Brian Maughan helped pump the brakes, the bigger issue is county leadership as a whole—who sold voters one number, built another jail entirely, and now seem surprised the math doesn’t work.
This article appears in Spring Break Splash.