At long last, Oklahoma County voters will have what could be the final say on whether the county has the money to build and operate a new jail after the Board of Commissioners voted 2-1 during Wednesday’s meeting to place a first-of-its-kind sales tax on the Nov. 3 ballot.
The proposal by District 2 Commissioner Brian Maughan would create a 0.4-cent sales tax for 25 years with the potential for future renewal, which would be estimated to generate about $70 million annually in revenue. Interim District 3 Commissioner Paul Foster voted for Maughan’s plan. District 1 Commissioner Jason Lowe, who unsuccessfully proposed a higher rate this spring, voted against it.
In 2022, more than 59 percent of Oklahoma County voters approved $260 million in property tax-funded bonds to fund the new county jail. But that amount has come up woefully short to build what is now expected to be an $860 million project that would accommodate about 1,800 detainees. Since then, commissioners have explored various means to address the cavernous funding gap before finally settling on a sales tax. Two other proposals, one by Foster and another by Lowe, have failed to advance beyond the Board of Commissioners this year.
The construction funding crisis has played out amid the backdrop of controversy over how the current jail has been operated. Since the Oklahoma County Criminal Justice Authority took over operation of the jail in July 2020, there have been 60 deaths at the facility. Many of those have generated lawsuits, including a $1.75 million settlement commissioners approved Wednesday on behalf of Johnny Alstatt, who was brutally beaten by his cellmate after a 2021 arrest for dumpster diving. Alstatt sustained brain damage from the beating. County jail settlement costs are typically absorbed by taxpayers through property taxes.
After voters approved the 2022 bond package, the county endured a lengthy site selection process before landing upon 1901 E. Grand Blvd. in sourtheast OKC. That choice has generated opposition from officials in Midwest City and Del City who have vowed in the past to oppose any county sales tax proposal owing to fears of the jail’s impact on those communities.
Maughan, who is the longest-serving current member of the BOCC, said it’s time to move forward with solving the lingering funding problem for a new jail.
“This is a practical solution that we finally have been able to bring to the public that actually has community support and backing,” he said following Wednesday’s meeting. “I don’t want to bring some proposal that wouldn’t have that kind of support behind it, knowing it would just be a failed effort. So I believe this is the most we could get and the fastest way we could resolve the issue. I’m very thankful for Commissioner Foster’s vote today and for moving forward.”
Foster, who is serving the remainder of former Commissioner Myles Davidson’s term, said during Wednesday’s meeting that he has some concerns about the proposal. But like Maughan, he said he believes it’s time to leap.
“This issue has been dragging on for years for various different reasons,” Foster said. “And the longer we wait to put this to a public vote, the more expensive it’s going to get. And there’s no reason to pass that burden on to the citizens of Oklahoma County.”
OCCJA Chairman Jim Holman also spoke during the public comment portion Wednesday’s meeting. He told commissioners that his remarks were those of a taxpayer.
“As a resident and a taxpayer, my question is: How much longer do we want to keep pushing or kicking the can down the road?” he told commissioners. “We have an issue with the jail that almost no one disputes, and that is we do not have an ideal facility.”
Last week, the Citizens Bond Oversight Committee approved a recommendation to the BOCC to propose a sales tax for building a roughly 1,800-bed facility across about 800,000 square feet, paid for by a sales tax that would sunset after 25 years. Alternatively, the tax could be extended depending on what the BOCC of the future decides in 2051, or thereabouts. Oklahoma County is the only one of the state’s 77 counties without a sales tax.
Steve Mason, chairman of the Citizens Bond Oversight Committee, told commissioners Wednesday that, of the $70 million the tax would generate, $44 million would go to debt service while the remainder would be earmarked for jail operations.
“In our motion, we propose supporting the sales tax, and I believe everyone in this room, however we do it, we have a problem we need to solve, and my committee feels like this is a good solution,” Mason told commissioners Wednesday.
Lowe: ‘I was lied to’
Not everyone left Wednesday’s meeting feeling optimistic, however.
Lowe, who is in a runoff battle for his District 1 commission seat with challenger Kayla Baker, told fellow commissioners in an impassioned speech that he opposes the tax as presented by Maughan. During his remarks, he called Maughan and Davidson’s efforts to fix the problem “reckless.”
“The phased approach taken by Commissioners Maughan and Davidson resulted in a third of a jail getting built and was reckless, knowing they didn’t have the funds to finish the construction on the remainder of the new facility, much less operating costs,” Lowe said. “The county should have canceled the remainder of the original $260 million in bonds voters approved until we had a better plan.”
While the Nov. 3 election looms as a toss up at best, construction has started on the first phase of the new jail alongside a behavioral health center. The first phase includes kitchen facilities, and Lowe has shared concerns that this may result in the county transporting more than 5,000 meals daily from the new site to the current jail downtown.
Lowe said the entire process to build the new jail has not been transparent and that reports of a possible film studio to be located at the current jail site when it is demolished are also concerning, he said.
“As a state representative a year and a half ago, I spoke at that podium, and I asked a question,” Lowe said. “That was: Why we can’t build a jail on the current site? What I heard was that we can’t because there is a river underneath the current jail, so we can’t build there. But then I read an Oklahoman article that says they want a film studio over there. Be honest with the public. I was lied to. The people who spoke and protested were lied to, and now they want us to approve $600 to $700 million when this county government was not truthful with the public. Do we need a new jail? Do we need to make sure that individuals in the jail are safe? Yes. This tax is not going to do that.”
What might happen if the sales tax election fails in November is also unknown. Commissioners are unlikely to propose unpopular property tax increases amid a slowing economy. Maughan said the issue of the new sales tax failing is something commissioners will have to address if it happens.
“I think that there’s obviously going to be an entire review at that point if we know that the voters have said, ‘You’re going to have to make do with what you have,’” Maughan said. “We will make adjustments accordingly at that time. But what we know now is that we have additional needs, and we’re bringing that transparently to the public so they can understand that we are short and that we need an adequate facility.”
Maughan said he chose Oklahoma’s November general election date because it offers maximum exposure among voters of all political affiliations.
“I wanted to bring it on the ballot that is anticipated to have the most votes,” he said following Wednesday’s meeting. “I didn’t want to try to do this in the dark of the holidays on a small turnout election ballot. I wanted to do this in front of everybody that I can. And I think that the best way to do that is this November election. So all along this year, I’ve told each of you over and over, I plan to bring a plan this fall. And that’s what I’ve done.”
Opposition awaits November vote
The Nov. 3 sales tax plan will almost certainly face opposition.
Earlier this year, Del City and Midwest City officials said they would oppose a county sales tax. The issue of the jail site has long been contentious for those cities because of late-night releases of arrestees and the transportation hurdles of getting people who have been released back to services downtown that are at least 15 minutes away from the new jail site.
Mark Faulk, who challenged Lowe in the District 1 county commissioner primary earlier this year, opposes the sales tax ballot question and has been a longtime critic of the jail’s day-to-day operations since the trust took over.
“I’ve already had people from Del City messaging me this morning,” Faulk said following Wednesday’s meeting. “I don’t think this discussion is over. Right now, they’re building a third of a jail and don’t really have any kind of plan on what to do with people who are released. I would expect that the conversations with those officials aren’t over yet. They have real concerns for their communities that haven’t been addressed. I think this will decimate Del City and damage Midwest City.”
Faulk, who has advocated for a smaller jail if one is to be built, said Wednesday he doesn’t think building a new jail solves endemic incarceration problems that he said fill up jails unnecessarily.
“We have never focused on the programs that will reduce the jail population before they get arrested,” Faulk said. “We can find money for larger jails, but we can’t find money to deal with a tragic and horrific homeless problem, mental health problems, addiction problems and poverty problems. Just people who can’t make bail. The bottom line is we need to quit arresting so many people. It’s as simple as that.”
