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  • Payne County voters will vote on extending a three-eighths cent sales tax during Tuesday’s election. Ricky O'Bannon

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February 13, 2012

Payne County voters will decide whether to retain sales tax

By Ricky O'Bannon robannon@stwnewspress.com

PAYNE COUNTY, Okla. — Payne County residents will decide Tuesday whether to extend the county’s three-eighth cent sales tax for an additional five years.

The tax has been in place for nearly two decades and is up for voter renewal every five years. The tax is set to expire in 2013 and would extend through 2018 if approved.

According to data from the Oklahoma Tax Commission, the three-eighth cent sales tax generated a little more than $3.6 million the past 12 months. Money raised by the tax is divided among different county programs.

Road and bridge projects receive 53 percent of the tax, 20 percent goes to fund the Payne County Expo Center, 15 percent goes to the county’s general fund, 7 percent goes to the Payne County Extension office and 5 percent is split among all fire departments in Payne County.

“This is a very needed renewal,” Commissioner Gloria Hesser told attendees at a recent legislative forum.

The money has been used in previous years to fund specific road projects around the county or to purchase needed equipment to maintain roads.

The Payne County Fair Board allocated tax revenue to install heaters above bleachers at the Payne County Expo Center’s McVey Arena and improve the arena’s roof this year. Past expo center additions funded by the tax include paved parking areas, a sound system throughout the facility and three livestock barns.

Perkins Fire Chief Joe Barta said each fire department in Payne County gets approximately $21,000 annually from the sales tax, which it can use to purchase needed equipment.

“It’s critical that is passes,” he said. “There are some things we just couldn’t do without it.”

One change to the latest extension is that the money that is sent to all fire departments in the county can be used for operations and maintenance.

In recent years the tax has gone to purchase new communication equipment for Perkins Fire, Barta said, but his department is in the process of saving funds it receives from the tax to make a larger purchase such as a new vehicle.

Ingalls volunteer Fire Chief Larry Devers said at a recent meeting of the sales tax oversight committee that his fire department saved its three-eighth cent sales tax earnings for seven years to buy a used fire truck for $83,000.

Residents can cast their votes on renewing the tax from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday at their assigned voting precinct.

Note: This story has been corrected to reflect that the portion of the three-eighth cent sales tax that is distrubuted to fire departments has been distributed to all of the county's fire departments, including Stillwater's, since the tax's inception.

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