The Seminole City Council has taken an official stance of opposition to a proposed quarter-cent hike in the county sales tax rate.

Voters will face the tax proposal, which was drafted by the Seminole County Board of County Commissioners, in a special election next month. The council, by means of a resolution passed unanimously at its regular meeting Tuesday evening, is encouraging voters to reject the tax when they go to the polls on April 6.

The resolution was presented to the council by City Manager Steve Saxon, who said he has a lot of unanswered questions as to why the jail tax is needed. In 2006, voters approved a twenty-year, half-cent sales tax to build a new jail at a cost of approximately $7 million. Funds not used for construction were to be used for operations, and at the end of 20 years, a quarter-cent tax will remain indefinitely for operations.

“The plan laid out in the proposition was once the debt was retired, that one-quarter cent would stay on the tax rolls forever, or until voters repeal it,” Saxon told the council. “When I heard that this new quarter-cent was being asked for, my immediate question was, ‘they’re asking for a full half-cent to run the jail?’”

Saxon said he has researched the matter and discovered that a new loan was taken out in 2019 by the county and there should be plenty of funds left in reserve for jail operations.

“It appears through what I have found that they have re-funded the surplus. You know that our sales tax since 2007 has gone up considerably. That should, under normal circumstances, create a very, very nice reserve,” Saxon said. “In this case, they decided to cash that out. I can’t find what they’ve done with the money. I assume that in 2019, they took out a new $4.9 million loan on that sales tax to extend it to 2027, which is when that principal needed to be paid off and the quarter-cent would stay on. You can pretty much surmise that of that $4.9 million, that probably in the neighborhood of $2 million, maybe $2.4 million, was left on the loan. So, $2 million or so has gone into some coffers - we assume it’s gone into the operations of the jail – but why would you need an extra quarter-cent put on our people, which would make our sales tax rate 10 percent?”

Saxon said that a 10 percent rate would put Seminole merchants at a disadvantage with retailers in neighboring communities.

‘Ten percent, in my opinion, and many others, is significant because it’s a price point,” Saxon told the council. “You’ve probably gone through a store and have seen something that’s priced for $99 versus $100 or $105. More importantly, it creates a disadvantage to our merchants when you can go to a neighboring community and you’re paying more for something because our sales tax has increased. Seminole does not need to be at 10 percent. Most communities our size are not at 10 percent.”

Saxon asked the council to send a message to the county commissioners that the city is not in favor of their proposal.

“I think the resolution that is in front of you is the council speaking the fact that it is incumbent upon the council to protect our merchants and our citizens. We have almost no details as to why the money is needed. This resolution is a way for the city council to say, ‘no, we need details. We don’t need to increase our sales tax.’”

A forum is scheduled for today (Thursday, March 11) at noon to discuss the proposal with the public. Information about the jail’s needs will be presented by Seminole County Undersheriff Matt Haley and Seminole County Clerk First Deputy Tahasha Wilcox. Others on the panel will be Saxon and Wewoka City Manager Mark Mosely.

The program will be broadcast through a Zoom webinar which can be acaccessed at noon. Those in-interested in receiving the link may call the Chamber at 405-382-3640. The program will also be recorded and posted on the Chamber’s Facebook page for future viewing.