A recent ad in the Kingfi sher Times & Free Press that was also posted on social media raised questions from some county citizens.

The ad was supported by Kingfisher County’s three commissioners and encouraged citizens to vote “yes” in this Tuesday’s election to extend a one-half cent sales tax that supports county services.

The tax was first approved by county voters in 1991 and has been approved in elections every five years since then.

Prior to each election, commissioners examine the needs with each department under the county’s purview and announce the percentage of funds to be allocated to each.

The allocation for the county jail in this five-year cycle is what raised some eyebrows.

The jail will receive 22 percent of the proceeds from the sales tax, which would begin in January when the current five-year cycle ends.

As a chart that compares the allocations for this cycle and the proposed five-year cycle from 2026-31 shows, that’s a full 22 percent bump.

Meanwhile, other entities within the county will see reductions. Some examples include:

• Resurfacing roads drops from 28 percent of the budget in 2021-25 to 19 percent in 2026-31;

• County sheriff drops from 15 percent to 10 percent; • General government will go from 15 percent to 7 percent.

Some of this is related, explained County Commissioner Anthony Schwarz.

“This has to do with establishing a jail trust,” Schwarz said. “The jail will be self-sufficient once we put that into place and the sheriff won’t have the jail under him, which is why he’s taking a big cut.”

As reported in the KT&FP in June, the county commissioners approved revising an inactive trust to operate the county jail.

One was previously established to build the jail and it’s now being revived.

The jail trust board will have five members: The county sheriff, a designated county commissioner (usually the chairman) and three at-large members, one from each of the county’s three districts.

The commissioners could appoint those three members at Monday’s meeting as an agenda item calls for that action.

Once established, the trust will take full operations of the jail from the county sheriff, which leads to the reduction in the sheriff’s allocation and the big piece of the pie being designated for the jail.

“Anything and everything the jail needs to survive will be taken from that,” Schwarz said. “Food. Jail administrator. Employee costs. All of it comes from that and it takes all the responsibility away from the sheriff.” Schwarz said the trust was established with the citizens of the county in mind.

“This more or less protects the citizens,” he said. “If there’s any kind of lawsuit, this takes the liability away from the county and the taxpayers.”

The jail currently has an administrator, Rechele Hirom, who will remain in that position.

She will essentially move from a county employee to one of the county jail trust.

Schwarz and District 1 Commissioner Jeff Moss assure this isn’t “outsourcing” of the jail operations.

“This isn’t going to be run by some outside entity,” Moss said. “This will be operated by the same people and will be overseen by county employees and county citizens.”

Some citizens were concerned about the reduction in the allocation toward improving county roads.

“We’ve got a bit of a surplus with that right now,” Schwarz said. “So the county can sustain a hit like this for now.”

Other areas of county government - such as the rural fire departments - will see an increase in their allocation. That is moving from 13 to 15 percent.

Moss said the county fire departments during the last cycle took a reduction in support of helping get the jail built.

“This will return them to what they had before,” Moss said.

If the sales tax doesn’t pass, the commissioners said all departments will suffer.

“We’re not asking for more money,” Schwarz said. “We’re just asking that if you’re used to paying this, we hope you’ll continue to do so. It won’t change anything that you’re used to paying.”

And Moss said careful consideration went into how the money is being proposed to be allocated.

“We aren’t robbing Peter to pay Paul,” he said. “It’s the same money; we’re just slicing the pie a little bit differently.”

Early voting for the election began Thursday.

Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday at polling locations across the county on Tuesday.

A simple majority is needed to pass the proposition. (Note: A sample ballot appeared on Page 1 of the Oct. 26 edition of the KT&FP.)

When last put to voters, the proposition received 59 percent approval (3,697 “yes” votes to 2,572 “no” votes) in November 2020.