Bryan County Commissioners will be having a meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 1 at the Bryan County Community Building to educate voters on two sales propositions that will be on the November ballot.
In August, commissioners Scott Goad, Tony Simmons and Brandon Carr voted to have an election for a one-cent sales tax in two separate propositions.
One proposition is for threequarters of a cent with each district in the county receiving one-quarter cent to be used for roads and bridges. The other proposition is for a quarter-cent for the sheriff’s office.
The county currently has a half-cent sales tax with onequarter for roads and bridges and one-quarter for the sheriff’s office.
Carr said in an August meeting that Bryan County is the only county in southeastern Oklahoma that only has a half-cent tax and every other county has a two-cent tax.
“In 2019, Marshall County brought in $1.9 million more in tax revenue than Bryan County and they’re a third the size,” Carr said.
The Oct. 1 meeting will be an opportunity for citizens to learn about the financial needs of the county. Attorney Stuart England and Randy Robinson, executive director of the Association of County Commissioners, will be among those speaking.
“We’re going to have a public meeting and have some people explain why we’re asking for this sales tax and there’s two propositions, one for the sheriff’s department and one for the county roads out in the county,” Simmons said, during a recent ribbon cutting after the community building was remodeled.
“It’s a very much needed sales tax for this county to continue to maintain the roads as needed with the population growth that we got and the sheriff’s office to be able to do what we need to do instead of Band-Aiding stuff and just barely getting by. This sales tax is almost a must for county government to maintain what it needs to.”