Kiowa County voters recently approved a new countywide sales tax, which will provide funding for building and equipping a new jail.
The county’s proposition for a 1% sales tax easily passed June 13, with 55.76% of voters supporting the proposal and 44.24% voting against it, according to official results from the Oklahoma State Election Board.
Kiowa County Sheriff Joe Janz was happy with the results.
“This was a very important step for the county, and I was very pleased to see that it passed,” he said Friday in an email to a Southwest Ledger reporter. “We can now move forward into a more modern facility.”
The new sales tax will be implemented Oct. 1 and sunset either in September 2048 or upon full repayment of any debt secured by the tax. The county’s current sales tax rate is set at one-half of 1%, but it will increase to 1.5% when the new tax is implemented.
That’s on top of the state sales tax rate, set at 4.5%.
The county’s new sales tax will generate approximately $817,000 per year, which will cover the cost of converting the Hobart armory building into a jail. The armory building is adjacent to the Kiowa County Sheriff’s Office.
The current jail is nearly 120 years old and does not meet state or federal standards, Janz said earlier this month. It has plumbing and electrical problems, and it is not accessible to people with disabilities.
“The new jail… will be a more modern facility than we currently have and will meet the current jail standards of today,” the sheriff said.
Janz said the county’s next steps include putting the bond issue out for bids and deciding whether county officials want a trust authority oversee the jail or leave it under the sheriff’s office.