This Tuesday, August 10, voters will take to the polls to decide whether or not to extend a quarter-cent sales tax to fund emergency services in Seminole County.

While we believe the tax should be extended (it’s been in place for the past 15 years), one of the three propositions on the ballot causes us concern.

Proposition Two states that 30% of the quarter-cent tax is to be divided up equally between the Konawa, Seminole and Wewoka ambulance services. While that may sound fair, we don’t believe it is.

Historically, Seminole has received a larger portion of the revenue (over 20%) because it makes more ambulance runs than what the Konawa and Wewoka departments typically do. Under this new proposal, Seminole’s share will be cut in half.

We’re crying foul for a couple of reasons. First of all, earlier this year the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) set the election date for June, and that ballot stated Seminole would continue to receive a larger piece of the pie as compared to Konawa and Wewoka. The ballot went out in the mail that way for absentee voters, but the election was recalled because the Seminole Fire Department was left off the ballot.

When the commissioners rescheduled the election for August, the ambulance revenue was divided up equally on the ballot, even though the local fire departments had approved the previous breakdown.

At a recent BOCC meeting, Seminole Fire Chief Fielding Lucas asked the commissioners the reason for the change. Commissioner Russell Yott replied that he felt all along that the revenue should be split equally, and that “negative” Facebook posts made toward the county played a part in the decision. The Seminole Firefighters Association had taken to social media to campaign against the proposed reduction (which is their right), but evidently that rubbed Yott the wrong way.

Since when do we make decisions, especially ones of the life-or-death variety, based on our feelings or emotions? Maybe that was not the entire case here, but it sure looks like it.

We’re asking the voters to carefully weigh their decisions when they go to the ballot box in a couple of days. Just like we advised earlier this year when the county asked us to pass a new tax for the county jail but couldn’t seem to tell us why it was needed (not to mention their lack of transparency), we’re saying “no” to prop three on the August 10 ballot.

The BOCC needs to go back to the drawing board and reallocate the ambulance money based on needs and facts, not on personal feelings.