The Seminole County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) has called an election for the extension of a quarter-cent sales tax to fund emergency services in the county.

The Seminole Producer reported in the May 23 edition that the BOCC would likely call the election during its meeting on Monday, May 24. According to documents provided to the Producer by the county, the measure was approved and an election has been set for Tuesday, Aug. 10.

The BOCC is proposing that the sales tax be extended for another five years beginning next January. Three propositions for how the revenue will be divided up will appear on the August ballot.

Proposition One calls for dividing 40 percent of the revenue equally between the eight fire departments in Seminole County, which includes Bowlegs, Cromwell, Konawa, Maud, Sasakwa, Seminole, Strother and Wewoka. This is the current structure of the apportionment.

Under Proposition Two, 30 percent of the revenue will be divided equally among the Konawa, Seminole and Wewoka ambulance services. During the 15-year existence of the Emergency Services Sales Tax, the ambulance portion of the tax has been distributed according to the number of ambulance runs each department makes. According to Seminole City Manager Steve Saxon, dividing the revenue evenly among the three ambulance services will result in a loss of over $60,000 per year for the Seminole Ambulance Service.

“Seminole will be cut by $66,000 per year while everyone else in the county gets increases. Fifty seven percent of the entire county residences are in Seminole’s ambulance district,” Saxon said last week.

Proposition Three states that the remaining 30 percent of the revenue will go to the county’s 911 system. Monies will go toward general operations, maintenance, repairs, purchase of equipment and training.

The BOCC recently called an election for June 8 for the extension of the tax, but that election has been cancelled due to the omission of the Seminole Fire Department on the ballot, which County Clerk Valarie Hogue attributed to a clerical error.

The language on the ballot for the cancelled election, which was received by several county residents in the mail, was markedly different from the resolution passed by the BOCC on Monday. Proposition Two of that now-invalid ballot stated that 32.5 percent of the quarter-cent sales tax would be appropriated for ambulance services, with 3.75 percent going to the Konawa Ambulance Service, 20.39 percent to Seminole and 8.36 percent to Wewoka.

If approved by voters, the extension will take effect Jan. 1, 2022 and will expire on Dec. 31, 2026.