With the project’s total expected cost hovering around $610 million, Oklahoma County’s new jail will likely be built in stages owing to a lack of revenue to fund the full facility. Exactly how county leaders will ask voters to close a roughly $350 million construction gap remains unclear, but the Board of Commissioners seems set to place a tax vote on residents’ ballots early next year.
“I imagine we’re going to try and put something out to voters in April,” Maughan said in an interview. “We’ve waited because we’re trying to build a coalition of support. That’s why it hasn’t come out sooner. Somebody has to run the campaign, and someone has to pay for it. We can’t use county resources for that.”
County commissioners have been grappling with how to fund the new jail as costs continue to rise. In 2022, voters approved a $260 million bond package that was expected to provide the bulk of the project’s funding through an extension of property tax rates. But three years later, estimates to build a 1,800-bed facility have ballooned to more than twice that amount, leaving county leaders with the awkward need to call another vote for more money.
“Obviously, if we were to build a new jail, we’re going to need a new revenue source, and that would be a tax,” District 1 Commissioner Jason Lowe said. “We’ve had discussions with the [Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce] to try to figure out who is going to fund a campaign to the voters.”
Exactly when a second revenue election to replace Oklahoma County’s existing albatross of a detention center should be held, however, has been complicated by other public votes for tax packages. OKC voters approved extending a sales tax to fund a new $1 billion basketball arena in December 2023, and the City of Oklahoma City has slated its latest general obligation bond package for an Oct. 14 date, making it unlikely the county would follow suit with an ask before next year.
“I think it would probably be sometime after the first of the year,” Maughan said. “You have to do something 100 days or so before it goes on the ballot to serve the election board notice and to fill out the ballot title. You have to have some attorney write that and so forth. So it might happen at the tail end of this year, but I bet it would be after the holidays.”
Commissioners are considering whether to ask voters to approve some sort of county sales tax that would help fund the construction cost — and potentially ongoing operational funding after construction bonds are paid off. Oklahoma County is the only county in the state without a dedicated sales tax.
“Half a penny, a penny — something along those lines,” Lowe said when asked what tax option he might vote to put before the public. “And then decrease that amount once the jail is built and use the rest of the sales tax amount to pay for operational costs.”
While a new sales tax would generate funds from Oklahoma County residents as well as people who visit the OKC metro, other ideas have been discussed. County leaders could also ask voters to increase their property taxes temporarily, which has been considered among the least desirable options available. Adding taxes on medical marijuana sales in the county could also be on the table as a way to avoid the pain of asking families to pay more taxes on necessities like food, but that idea would require legislative approval in the spring before a county could even propose such a tax to voters.
In January, the Oklahoma County Bond Oversight Committee, chaired by local developer Steve Mason, recommended that a sales tax be implemented to bridge the funding gap for the new jail. Maughan said a potential sales tax seems to be the mostly likely option, even if it will be a heavy political lift four years after the jail bond campaign pledged no new taxation.
“So we’ve been looking at identifying partners in the community who might be willing to shelter it,” Maughan said. “The city is going forward with their (GO) bond package in October, so right now the only consideration we’ve given is to go after that.”
The county is also in the early phases of building a $44 million behavioral health center that is being constructed with American Rescue Plan Act funds. That facility, which will feature about 60 beds, is slated to be on the same campus as the proposed new jail and offer easier ways to divert people experiencing mental health issues from the general detention facility.
With time stopping for no government and decision deadlines fast approaching, Oklahoma County District 3 Commissioner Myles Davidson said a phased approach to building the new jail seems likely.
“The remaining $200 million in bonds will be released to begin what will be a phased approach of construction of the new facility,” Davidson said in an interview. “The first aspect of it will be the intake, a couple of courtrooms, an arraignment area, and what I have dubbed the ‘CARE Center,’ which is community assessment and reentry. Most of the people who are booked into the jail don’t wind up going upstairs and into a cell. So the idea that the booking be out there and at the same site as the behavioral center will be to get those people expedited through the system, get them booked, get them arraigned, and do it in a much more efficient and humane manner.”
‘You don’t just start tackling construction all at once’
A phased approach to construction has been on the table since discussions on a new jail were in their infancy, but it took years of discussions and litigation just to settle on a new location in southeast OKC — 1901 E. Grand Blvd.
“That’s something that’s been looked at since the very beginning,” Davidson said. “You don’t just start tackling construction all at once. It’s like if you’re building a major project downtown, you’ve got to have the exoskeleton before you put anything else on it — the exits so you could get to it, and the other stuff you would need. So, that’s what we’re doing. We’re building our plan. It would be the receiving (area), the reentry center, kitchen, courtrooms, and other things. So, probably one whole block.”
The county’s current jail downtown could continue to operate during that phase “for a short time,” he said.
“There would be transportation between the two. It would be once a day,” Davidson said. “There’s not enough for us to do multiple trips a day, because you have to consider that some of the people who are booked will get out. They’re just waiting on bond, or a conditional bond, or whatever they need to get out. They don’t end up in a cell. They’re waiting. And so I think this would be a much more efficient and humane approach.”
Lowe called starting construction before funding is secured “a horrible idea.”
“I call it building half a jail. It makes absolutely no sense. We don’t know what the voters will decide,” Lowe said. “We cannot pay for the operational costs for half a (new) jail and also the current jail. We don’t even have money to pay for the current jail, so we don’t have enough money to fund two sites at the same time. It just doesn’t make any sense.”
Davidson, who has also floated the notion of splitting a sales tax between construction and operations, said details of the funding package are still being considered by commissioners.
“We’re wrapping up the final stages of the package that we’re going to send to voters,” he said. “There are just a couple of questions to answer before we send it. And one of those is, ‘What type of funding are we talking about?’”
Asked what funding mechanisms or new taxes are being considered, Davidson said it is still an “all of the above” approach.
“I think there’s still the possibility of a marijuana tax, and there are still some property tax discussions. We’re looking at what are some creative ways that we can add additional funding to the county. Oklahoma County is the only county in the state without a sales tax. So that’s certainly one of the easiest to think of,” Davidson said. “Sales taxes are difficult to pass, but one thing everyone agrees on is the public safety aspect. And that would be part of a larger package that would allow us to provide more fire services, more ambulance services, which we pay for in incorporated areas. We’ve got 10 volunteer fire departments that we pay for, and there is a $200 million backlog of projects that we will probably never catch up on at the current rate. So we have a pretty big job in front of us.”
But the jail funding could prove to be controversial, regardless of how it is sought. The construction of the new jail has long been opposed by the People’s Council for Justice Reform. That organization has also called for the dissolution of the jail trust, which handles the day-to-day operation of the jail. Member Mark Faulk said at a county commissioner meeting in May that it is unlikely voters would approve a sales tax for the new jail.
“First of all, I don’t know if it’s common knowledge, but I have heard the arena is (…) short on their budget,” Faulk told commissioners. “And if in fact that is the case, you will not pass a sales tax in Oklahoma County, and you won’t likely pass one anyway, so I think you need to look at your different sources of funding.”
OKC Mayor David Holt scoffed in July at a question about whether the new basketball arena might go over budget.
“It’s obviously not going to cost over $1 billion,” Holt said. “This is within budget. I made that point out there.”
‘Neglected’ Oklahoma County courthouse needs attention, too
As questions about jail funding linger, the Oklahoma County Courthouse is also decades behind on maintenance.
Most recently, two of the three elevators that serve the portion of the courthouse containing courtrooms — which is now more than 90 years old — were disabled for part of the summer owing to flooding caused by a contractor working on the eighth floor. Maughan said the elevator malfunction has led to some long lines, but he said it was less inconvenient than it could have been since jury trials are in recess this month.
“They’re all back up and running, but then after that happened, the [detainee] elevator went down,” Maughan said. “So we had to commandeer one of the passenger elevators for inmate transport. It’s better than it was, because we have at least two working for civilians. Hopefully, the [detainee] elevator will be fixed soon and we’ll have them all working again.”
Davidson said the Oklahoma County Courthouse has long been ignored.
“The courthouse probably needs about a $75 million-plus renovation,” he said. “And I hate to use the term renovation. It’s not that. It’s a building that has been neglected since the 1970s.”
