The county road sales tax was approved by a vote of 913 to 767.
The jail and sheriff's department sales tax was defeated by a vote of 865 to 802.
District 1 Commissioner Bruce Tabor said Wednesday morning, "I'm proud the road tax was passed, but I hated to see the other tax fail. The sheriff's office needs the help...and we could have done away with those DOC prisoners."
The county jail is housing about 30 Oklahoma Department of Corrections (DOC) for the state, which pays the jail $31 per day for each. That money is used for jail maintenance and salaries. A permanent one-third of one-cent sales tax was approved by voters before the new jail was built, but that tax only brings in about $25,000 a month, the commissioners said, and salaries alone run about $30,000 a month. Housing the DOC prisoners keeps the jail open, but leads to overcrowding, the commissioners said.
Tabor said the 114-bed jail "is already getting overcrowded, and that is something the state doesn't like." The state can fine jails which are regularly overcrowded, he explained.
Tabor said the road tax will be a help to the commissioners because of rising costs.
"We would have been devastated without that tax," Tabor said.
District 2 Commissioner Steve Carter agreed.
"It passed by a good margin," Carter noted. "Now we don't have to pay for another election in five years now that the road tax is permanent."
The original sales tax for county roads was to be voted on every five years. The proposition approved Tuesday makes the sales tax permanent.
Carter agrees with Tabor that the county needed the sales tax for the sheriff's office and jail.
"I have no idea why people didn't vote for it," Carter said. "It floored me.
"These DOC inmates can be a liability to the county. I really thought the people would pass the tax."
The commissioners pointed out before the election that as much as 40 percent of the sales tax was paid by people traveling through the county. Carter also pointed out that, "Even when the criminals bought a pop, they were paying for their own incarceration."
District 3 Commissioner Mike Huff said, "We needed this road tax, we really did, because the cost or fuel and materials has gone up so much."
Huff said the sales tax for county roads brings in an average of $90,000 a month, which is split equally between the three county commission districts.
But he also added, "I wish they (voters) had come through for us on the jail tax."
The original one-half cent sales tax for the jail was split between paying for the new jail and its maintenance. When the new jail was paid off last month, two-thirds of the half-cent dropped off the sales tax, while one-third of the half cent remained.
