A proposed new sales tax to bolster education in Seminole County is modeled after Pottawatomie County’s education tax, those behind the effort say.

An election has been set for Sept. 9 to decide on a half-cent sales tax that will benefit the county’s ten public school districts (Bowlegs, Butner, Justice, Konawa, New Lima, Sasakwa, Seminole, Strother, Wewoka and Varnum), the District Attorney’s education office and Seminole State College (SSC). The schools will receive 90 percent of the revenue, and the DA’s office and SSC will each receive five percent. The Academy of Seminole will not receive any of the revenue, as it is technically an Oklahoma County School.

According to Dr. Bob Gragg, Superintendent of Seminole Public Schools, Pottawatomie County has had a half-cent education tax on the books for the past decade, and in April, voters made the tax permanent.

“When they first passed that nine years ago, it passed by 52% positive vote. Nine years later, when they were able to show all the results of what it has done, not only for the schools but for the businesses that were concerned about that increase in sales tax, it passed by 74% as a permanent issue,” Gragg said Tuesday at a meeting of Seminole County Superintendents.

“The design is really, really transparent and really a great design, because the sales tax is allocated, once it comes in monthly to the county, it stays at the county, and it’s allocated to those 14 districts (in Pottawatomie County) based on their prior year enrollment,” Gragg said.

Gragg clarified that revenue from the proposed tax will not be used for salaries, but for building, transportation and other needs.

“They specify clearly that it cannot be used for salaries, period. It isn’t to be something to replace money, but for where we have gaps in funding. If you look at most of the schools and almost any rural county in Oklahoma, the building fund is a misnomer. You think you could build buildings with building funds, but you do well to repair a few of the leaks and a few of the air conditioners that go out,” Gragg said.

District Attorney Erik Johnson, who was also present at Tuesday’s meeting, said the revenue his office would receive would benefit the Children’s Advocacy Center. The current center is in Ada, but he plans to have a branch center in the Seminole County Courthouse in Wewoka.

“Funds for the D.A.’s office from this tax are not being spent in Pontotoc County and Hughes County,” Johnson said. “The Advocacy Center is located in Ada, but those funds are just passing through, because I have to have a vehicle in which I can receive those funds, and I want it to be set aside directly for that programming. I’ve got a disproportionate number of children in state foster care in Seminole County, almost twice the average of my other two counties.”

Gragg projected that the tax would generate between $1.2 million and $1.5 million. If approved Sept. 9, the tax will go into effect Jan. 1, 2026 and will terminate on Dec. 31, 2035.