Claremore manager urges passage of 1-cent general sales tax on April 1 ballot to fund infrastructure

Claremore City Manager John Fieri urged residents at a state-of-the-city presentation to support a one-cent general sales tax on the April 1 ballot, saying the measure would provide flexible revenue the city lacks to address long-standing infrastructure needs.

Fieri said the city currently levies three restricted pennies, each tied to specific uses such as parks, sanitary sewer and capital needs, and that the proposed additional penny would be placed into the city’s general fund. "If the April general fund allocation were to pass, that would go directly into the general fund," Fieri said, adding that the council and staff would then allocate those dollars through the annual budget process.

The nut of the proposal, Fieri said, is revenue flexibility. Claremore’s sales-tax rules make the city dependent on utility fees and a narrow set of taxes; the manager argued that restricted pennies prevent the city from leveraging sales-tax revenue to finance large capital projects such as wastewater, water treatment and road reconstruction. He told the audience one penny is estimated to produce roughly $5.96 million annually based on recent sales- and use-tax collections.

City officials presented numbers during the meeting to show why new, flexible revenue is needed. Fieri said utilities generate the majority of the city’s revenue and that Claremore’s three restricted pennies together yield about $17 million per year. Because the restricted pennies are dedicated, he said the city cannot pledge them for borrowing or redeploy them to cover different capital needs without voter approval.

Opponents in the audience asked how the new penny would affect individual households and businesses. Fieri offered examples: a household spending $4,000 per month on taxable goods would pay about an extra $40 per year if the penny passes; a $50 restaurant bill would increase by about $1. He said the city’s intent is to spread the burden across the higher daytime population and retail visitors that use Claremore services as well as residents.

Fieri and others at the meeting also discussed alternatives to the sales-tax proposal, including raising utility rates or issuing bonds backed by utility revenues. On that point he told listeners that raising utility rates is a council decision and that utilities already fund much of the city’s operations: "Utilities is about 60% of our budget," he said. He added that, absent new revenue streams, the city could face pressure to increase utility rates to cover rising costs.

Councilors and staff at the meeting emphasized the city’s long-term capital needs — including multimillion-dollar water-treatment and sanitary-sewer projects, road overlays, and electric system upgrades — as the rationale for asking voters for a general-purpose penny. Fieri said the city has borrowed in prior years at low rates (for example, $10 million in 2019 and $10 million in 2020) and that flexible sales-tax revenue would allow the city to leverage borrowing for one-off large projects.

The meeting concluded with a reminder to voters: the ballot measure will appear on April 1. Fieri repeatedly framed the request as an option to diversify Claremore’s revenue and accelerate needed infrastructure work, while noting the council would continue to set spending priorities during the annual budgeting process.

Votes at the meeting: none — the presentation was informational and followed by public questions.