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County officials ask voters to support tax
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Sequoyah County Commissioners voted at a special meeting in August to turn county jail operations over to Sheriff Ron Lockhart and also called for the vote on a half-cent sales tax, which will go to the sheriff to operate the jail.
If the half-cent sales tax fails, county officials say property owners will most likely bear the financial burden of jail operations. County commissioners have said that, with no money to operate the jail, prisoners will have to be housed in other county jails, and the county will face lawsuits filed by prisoners. If the lawsuit outcomes go against the county, the amount awarded in the lawsuits will go onto ad valorem taxes automatically.
The jail was previously operated by a trust authority, which is now dormant. When county commissioners noted that the state was reducing the number of Department of Corrections inmates housed in county jails — thus reducing the amount of money the county raised by housing DOC prisoners — they turned over the jail to the sheriff. By doing so, the one-sixth of a cent already in place for the jail remained in place. The commissioners determined that if county prisoners were housed in other county jails, the county would lose that one-sixth of a cent sales tax. Also, turning over the jail allowed county money to be used for its operations. The jail trust authority could not use county money to operate the jail.
If the sales tax passes, it will save property owners from the possible increase on their ad valorem taxes, and would shift the tax to everyone who comes into the county to purchase merchandise. That half-cent sales tax is predicted to bring in about $1.4 million a year, Lockhart said.
Sheriff asks for support
“We need the tax to pass,” Lockhart said Thursday.
Lockhart said the jail can be run three ways — through the sheriff’s department, by the criminal justice authority or by housing prisoners in other facilities.
“To house inmates in other facilities, it will cost more money then keeping the jail open,” Lockhart said.
He said state law requires the county have jail facilities.
“We can either pass the tax and keep the jail here or we will have to pay other counties to house our prisoners, which will cost more money,” Lockhart said. “The tax will bring in about $1.4 million. The burden will be taken off of the county budget.”
Sheriff’s budget
Lockhart explained that the new jail has never been an item in the county budget. It ran under the criminal justice authority based on the one-sixth sales tax and money paid by the state for house DOC prisoners. The jail was not funded by county money, Lockhart said.
“I guess they had money saved, plus they had the DOC prisoners,” Lockhart said. “About a year ago they quit shipping as many DOC inmates.
“The sheriff’s department has always had the same budget, about $598,000, that is for the dispatch center, maintenance, operation, fuel and etc.,” Lockhart said.
He said the county is proposing $9,000 more dollars then what the sheriff’s department had last year to run both operations — the jail and the sheriff’s office.
“There is no way to do it,” Lockhart said. “When we first got the jail there was $4,000 in the account for the jail. The first five months (of 2009) to operate the jail the figures came to $112,000 a month.”
Lockhart said the city of Sallisaw has a $1.6 million budget for their police department alone.
“They got less then 45 square miles to cover with 22 officers. We got 673 square miles to cover with nine road deputies with a $382,000 budget,” Lockhart said.
“The rural citizens need to get out and vote for this tax. It’s going to hurt them more the citizens in town because they have their own police department; the rural citizens don’t. It’s a shame these rural citizens will let the citizens in Sallisaw regulate what they are going to get. That is why it is so important for the rural citizens to get out and vote yes for this tax,” Lockhart said.
The tax benefit
County Clerk Vicki Sawney said, “The ad valorem taxes will eventually go up if the tax is not passed.”
She said the county will not be able to pay the bills and vendors will file suit against the county. When the suits are filed the vendors will receive a judgment from the suit for the amount owed and that amount will go into a sinking fund, which is paid through the ad valorem taxes.
“The property owners in the city and the county will be supporting the jail,” Sawney said.
“With the sales tax,” Sawney said, “the tax will be spread out over a wider area. People who come into the county to purchase items will pay the tax, not just Sequoyah County property owners.”
Sawney said 35 to 40 percent of the taxes are collect from people who don’t live in the county.
Sawney said, “The tax rate would go from 9.417 percent to 9.917 percent in Sallisaw. It won’t be a noticeable difference. But if it has to come out of the ad valorem taxes it will be noticeable to the property owners.
“With the 9.417 percent sales tax (in Sallisaw) we have now if a person was to spend $127 on items at Walmart the tax would make the total bill $138.95.”
She said with the increased one-half-cent tax the total bill would equal $139.59.
“That would be a 64-cent increase,” Sawney said.
Sheriff’s new vehicles
“I’m not overspending,” Lockhart said about new equipment recently purchased for the sheriff’s office.
“We’ve spent $38,000 since Jan. 1 on buying used vehicles. That money came from our cash account. Nothing we have bought has come out of the general funds.
“In January we filled for a grant for equipment through the Justice Department. We were approved. We bought new vehicles and equipment.”
Lockhart applied for and was awarded a JAG (Justice Assistance Grant) through the U.S. Department of Justice, which he said is an equipment grant. He said they were approved for the grant and the sheriff’s office received $92,000 to help with the purchase of equipment.
“This did not cost the taxpayers one dime,” Lockhart said. “No money from the county budget has been used.
“I met my budget, I didn’t overspend, not one penny,” Lockhart said. “I’ve been working hard on trying to get grants. My goal is to leave the sheriff’s office in better shape then what it was in when I took office. I will apply for every grant I can to help this sheriff’s office be top notch.”
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03.26.09 - 01:57 pm
Sequoyah County unemployment jumped from 6.6 percent in December to 10.3 percent in January, according to information released by the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission (OESC).
The OESC reports that the county had a total work force of 18,190 in January, with 16,310 working and 1,880 unemployed. The 10.3 percent unemployment rate ties Sequoyah County with LeFlore County in the percentage of unemployed. The 10.3 percent is the fifth highest unemployment rate in the state. Tillman County has the highest unemployment for January, at 11.5 percent.
The unemployment rate for January in neighboring counties is Adair County, 9.1 percent; Haskell County, 7.3 percent; Muskogee County, 7.2 percent; and Cherokee Country, 5.9 percent.
Sequoyah County’s unemployment is almost 4 percentage points higher than one year ago, in January 2008, when unemployment was at 6.4 percent.
Oklahoma’s unemployment for January was reported at 5.6 percent by the OESC, and unemployment across the United states for the same month was reported at 8.5 percent.
I have to give kudos to you. You are one independent person. You generate your own power, you supply your own water, you have a garden....which exempts you from an electric and water bills. Your screen name is feduptaxpayer and you talk like you totally live off the grid, free from civilization. And you gripe about taxes?? Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the tax PASSED. I guess you and the rest of the self centered bunch of idiots here really worked hard to getting this tax to fail. Look at the results lady, you and your opposition just got blown out of the water. How do you like those apples ?
We also have quite a large garden area which supplies us with all the vegetables we need. I do a lot of canning and freezing vegetables. We have a hog and a calf slaughtered every fall which gives us plenty of meat to eat for the year. Very little do we ever have to buy at the grocery store. When we do have to shop, we do all our shopping either in Tahlequah or Muskogee because things are a lot less expensive in Tahlequah and Muskogee than they are in Sallisaw. Now, is there anything else you would like to know?
I guess within a few hours now, we're going to find out how many sane people voted.
You know with the many comments that's posted on this website, rarely ever do I see any who uses their real names. I'm beginning to wonder if there is either legal reasons, or personal reasons behind it.
And no I haven't been promised a job, nor do I think I want one considering being in my late 50's.
I voted yes and I encourage everyone else to vote yes.
I am sick and tired of all the lies and the game playing the elected officials are doing. The corrupt elected officials are trying to con the tax paying citizens of Sequoyah County in any way they can.
If the county officials want more money then I suggest they do as any of the rest of us would have to do if we were short of money and could not pay our bills. Cut back on their frivolous spending. Even County Commissioner Steve Carter said there was frivolous spending taking place at the county level.
I will be VOTING NO tomorrow on all questions. I have had enough of their lies and con games. I ALSO WANT THE ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS [$100,000.00] OF THE TAXPAYERS MONEY RETURNED.
Plus, I do not like the way the county assessor is trying to CON people into thinking that if the people vote to do away with the personal property tax that it will be saving the taxpayer money. Just how stupid does she think we are. I urge the people to VOTE NO on that piece of SCAM WORK also. I have never seen so many crooks in one place in my entire life as there is at the Sequoyah County courthouse. TAXPAYERS, I URGE YOU TO PLAY IT SMART AND VOTE NO TOMORROW.
GET OUT AND VOTE REGARDLESS OF WHAT THE WEATHER IS AND VOTE NO. IT IS TIME WE TOOK OUR COUNTY BACK !!!!!! VOTE NO !!!!!!
Oh the brutality was amongst his reputation, that and downing a bottle. His name has been on plenty of lawsuits. So yeah I'd say he done his fair share of damage.
Johnny never asked for grants or anything because he really didn't care. He didn't care anything about improvement. He managed to get his friend an office job, whose salary was more than the deputies.
Oh the list can go on and on if you feel like discussing the old sheriff. Alot of people can talk all the talk they want about the new sheriff, at least he's trying to make changes. That's better than a good ole boy just sitting around collecting a county check and only being a sheriff around election time...only it didn't work for him this time did it ?
I voted for Lockhart and I will vote yes for the tax. It's not for Lockhart, it's for the jail and the sheriffs department. Somewhere down the line I think everyone forgot that the taxpayers are what keeps the deputies jobs up. It keeps the sheriffs job up. Do you want to destroy it all because in your individual opinion, the sheriff has wasted money. Money has to be spent, not just to sit and look at. Vehicles were needed and more deputie were needed. If you can't understand that then you must be hating the sheriff too much.
If you vote no tomorrow, and this tax doesn't pass. There will be no scare tactics. There's going to be chaos and you will reap what you sow.
If I was County Clerk Vicki Sawney I would be too embarrassed to say one word about wanting more money from the taxpayers, seeing as she is the one responsible for keeping records of where and how the taxpayers money is spent. Maybe she should do her job and find the $100,000.00 that she let come up missing out of the County Clerk's office instead of trying to use "scare tactics" to try and bilk the taxpayers out of more money for her to "lose"????
Sounds as though the county officials are still using the old "scare tactics" and putting the "cart before the horse." Instead of them whining and crying about wanting MORE money from the taxpayers for them to "lose", let them hunt down the $100,000.00 of the taxpayers money that is "missing." Now that is something they should be whining and crying about. They can't keep up with the money they already had so why give them more taxpayers money to "lose"??? I WILL BE VOTING NO ON ALL QUESTIONS AND I ENCOURAGE ALL OTHERS DO THE SAME. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.... VOTE NO.