Sequoyah County Commissioners and other elected county officials on Monday discussed how to promote the half-cent sales tax the county is proposing to support the money-strapped county jail. A special election on the sales tax will be held Oct. 13.

District 2 Commissioner Steve Carter held a town hall meeting in Vian Tuesday night to explain the need for the sales tax. Eight attended the meeting. Lockhart and State Rep. Glen “Bud” Smithson (D-Sallisaw) also attended. (See video of the meeting on Your TIMES Web site at www.sequoyahcountytimes.com.)

Carter is holding town hall meetings at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Marble City Town Hall; at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Gore Town Hall; and at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 10 at the Blackgum Community Building.

At Monday’s county commission meeting other elected county officials suggested ways to convince voters to support the tax. Although the county is paying for the special election on the sales tax on Oct. 13, it is illegal for county government to spend money to promote the tax.

Court Clerk Vicki Beaty said she would be willing to pay for fliers and signs out of her own pocket, and asked that other county officials help with the financing. Beaty also said her own employees have volunteered to visit with voters to urge support for the tax. The employees would do the campaigning on their own time.

Beaty asked the commissioners what questions voters asked most about the half-cent tax.

Carter explained voters most often asked him why in previous elections the county sought only one-sixth of a cent for the jail and now the proposition is for a one-half cent sales tax.

Carter and District 1 Commissioner Bruce Tabor said that jail costs have gone up over the years since the jail opened, and now that the jail is 10 years old, maintenance is becoming a problem.

Lockhart said he spent $2,000 last month keeping the air conditioning running.

Carter said when the jail opened it cost about $62,000 a month to operate. Now the cost is $112,000 a month.

Lockhart reported on the audits done over the years and pointed out that jail operations costs were $603,000 in 2004, and had risen to $900,000 in 2007. He said he did not have the audit for the 2008 and 2009 fiscal year, but according to his own records the cost of operating the jail through the first five months of this year was $112,000 a month. He said that totaled to $1,322,000 for the entire year.

He said the 114-bed jail is now full, and he is housing prisoners for other counties for $27 per day.

About whether the sales tax could be used by the sheriff for other things, Carter pointed out that the sheriff will have to have transport vehicles for prisoners and additional deputies to accompany prisoners during transport.

“The money will be used for the jail,” Carter emphasized.

Carter said he expects the most resistance to the proposed sales tax will be in Sallisaw because the city is in the process of expanding and upgrading its water system and city officials are hoping that a half-cent tax now collected for expansion at Carl Albert State College’s campus in Sallisaw will be re-directed to the water system. The campus improvements are expected to be paid off in 2010 or 2011.

The commissioners and Lockhart said the county jail is draining the county budget.

Carter said, “If this doesn’t pass, we may have to close some county offices a couple days a week.”

Tabor said that lawsuits against the county, which could be filed because of bad jail conditions if the tax does not pass, will go against the county’s property owners.

“Basically, the property owners will pay for the jail if the tax doesn’t pass,” he said.

Beaty suggested the county officials wait until after Tuesday’s town hall meeting in Vian to determine what voters are most concerned about, and then answer the questions by handing out fliers and erecting signs paid for by county officials out of their own pockets.

Lockhart suggested putting the jail audit figures on the flier and handing the fliers out at the town hall meetings.

County voters have defeated a sales tax for the jail in two previous elections, the last on June 9 when the county asked for one-sixth of a cent sales tax for the jail and one-sixth of a cent sales tax for the sheriff’s office.

Since the Sequoyah County Criminal Justice Authority, which oversaw jail operations at the time, was out of money, the authority and county commissioners turned jail operations over to Sheriff Ron Lockhart. The switch in oversight allows the county to use county funds to operate the jail. The authority was limited to money brought in by a one-sixth of a cent sales tax approved by voters when the jail was built 10 years ago, and money paid for housing prisoners for other agencies, specifically the Oklahoma Department of Corrections (DOC). But the DOC began moving prisoners out to other facilities last year, causing the money crisis.

Now the county is asking voters to approve the half-cent sales tax for the jail. If approved the tax is expected to bring in about $90,000 a month.

If voters turn down the tax, the county commissioners said so much of the county’s budget will have to go to jail operations that other county offices may have to cut back and even operate only three days a week.