Two sales tax measures will be decided by voters in November after both the county and city of Kingfisher adopted resolutions Monday calling for elections on that date.

Kingfisher County will be asking all county residents to approve another five-year extension of the half-cent county sales tax in the November general election, with proceeds to be reallocated to also include funding the 911 program.

The city of Kingfisher is asking for a permanent one-third cent tax to fund capital improvement projects, first and foremost a new fire department.

While technically a new tax, the capital improvement tax will replace a one-third cent funding quality of life improvements which expires in October, so the total sales tax collected percentage won’t increase, City Manager Dave Slezickey said.

County Reallocation

County commissioners passed a resolution Monday calling for the election to renew the half-cent sales tax and to reduce allocations to six other beneficiaries to allow a 9% slice of the pie to be allocated to operations of the county’s enhanced 911 program.

Originally, the 911 program was financed through a fee charged on every county telephone landline.

But as more and more county residents have shifted to cell phone service exclusively, fees charged on the dwindling number of landlines are no longer sufficient to pay for 911 operations.

Currently, proceeds of the half-cent sales tax, which expires Jan. 31, 2021, are divided as follows: county roads 29%; fire departments 13%; sheriff’s office and general government, 15% each; fair board 10%; OSU Extension Service 9%; Chisholm Trail Museum 5% and Kingfisher Memorial Library 3%.

Commissioners voted to shave a percentage point each from the shares for county roads, general government, OSU Extension Service, museum and library and 4% from the fair board.

District 3 County Commissioner Heath Dobrovolny told the Times & Free Press current operational expenses for 911 are falling short of revenues by about $18-19,000 per month, which amounts to about 7.5% of the county’s sales tax collections during the three worst months of the past year.

“We looked at the three lowest months and averaged that out, figuring that’s the worst we would see, and then we added a cushion of another 1.5% to be extra conservative,” he said.

The new allocation leaves the shares for two entities intact at their original percentages – the sheriff’s office, which will have added maintenance and operation expenses at the new criminal justice center, and the fire departments, which already lost a percentage of their designated sales tax to finance construction of the jail.

Dobrovolny said a larger share (4%) will be taken from the fair board’s allocation since that entity has few employees and the county fairgrounds has no immediate plans for major improvement projects, having completed several in the past few years.

Dobrovolny said commissioners talked to the impacted entities before voting to approve the reallocation, which only will take effect if voters approve to extend the halfcent sales tax another five years, beginning Feb. 1, 2021.

Capital Improvement Tax

For voters residing in the Kingfisher city limits, the county sales tax extension will be one of two on the ballot in the November election.

City commissioners voted unanimously Monday night to call for an election for a permanent one-third cent capital improvement tax.

The tax, designated to fund a prioritized and evolving list of capital improvements reviewed each year by city commissioners, was slated for a vote back in April.

But when April elections were delayed by the state until June 30 due to the pandemic, city commissioners voted to rescind the call for election in light of the economic impact of business closures and layoffs.

City commissioners discussed asking for a half-cent, the amount collected for the first three years of the fiveyear sales tax that funded the renovation of the Vernie Snow Aquatic Center.

A third-cent would raise an estimated $400,000 per year and a half-cent would bring in about $200,000 more, Slezickey said.

Commissioners agreed that a third-cent, which would not be an increase in the overall sales tax percentage, would be more palatable to voters.

If approved, the first priority for the new tax proceeds is funding the construction of a new fire station at its current location, roughly estimated to cost $4.5 to 6 million, Slezickey said.

“I think we can accomplish that with a third-cent tax,” he said.

The new tax would take effect Jan. 1 if approved by voters.