Brakes Applied to OK County Tax
Oklahoma County jail plan, sales tax votes put on hold
By Zeke Campfield
A plan to put a $281 million jail proposal before Oklahoma County voters this spring is on hold, and a jail sales tax ballot drafted by the county likely will not go before voters this spring as planned.
The decision to delay a vote on the half-cent sales tax comes on the heels of a voter survey, but Ray Vaughn, chairman of the Oklahoma County Board of Commissioners, would not directly attribute the plan’s slowdown to the survey results.
Instead, Vaughn said he has implored the U.S. Department of Justice to relax or terminate its threats to take over the jail.
“We’re just kind of waiting on their final stance, I think, and then that will kind of give us the direction that we need to go,” Vaughn said.