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Citizens Oversight Committee recommends 0.4% sales tax, adds lockbox and oversight safeguards
Summary
The committee voted to recommend the Board of County Commissioners put a 0.4% county sales tax on the Nov. 3, 2026 ballot, supplementing the ask with an expanded oversight committee, a lockbox for excess funds, a 25–30 year term and caps of $605 million (or 800,000 sq ft) and 1,800 total beds.
The Citizens Oversight Committee voted to recommend that the Board of County Commissioners place a 0.4% county sales tax on the Nov. 3, 2026 ballot to fund the planning, construction, operation and maintenance of a new Oklahoma County detention and Behavioral Care Center campus.
The motion, as read back by the committee, supplements the ballot language to expand the oversight committee to include credentialed officials, create a lockbox to capture any excess for future maintenance, set the financing term at 25–30 years, and cap the project "not to exceed $605,000,000 and or 800,000 square feet and 1,800 beds total." Committee members then approved the recommendation by roll call: Javier Nira, Sandino Thompson, Joanne Davis, Mike Mize and Chair Steve Mason voted yes.
Committee members and staff said the proposed 0.4% levy is intended to generate about $70 million a year; staff estimated roughly $44 million would be required for debt service while about $26 million would remain for operations. "That 0.4 should cover it," the project presenter said when outlining the modeling and assumptions used to size the ask.
Supporters inside the meeting said adding an oversight expansion and a lockbox were essential to maintain public trust. One committee member urged that the recommendation emphasize financial oversight and clarity on the scope of the “hard asset” so voters know what they are approving. The motion directs the Board and its legal advisers to draft the final ballot language consistent with bond and ballot rules.
Opponents at public comment and some committee members pressed for alternatives, including repairing the existing jail, greater contribution from Oklahoma City and narrower project scope. The committee’s recommendation does not itself enact a tax; it asks the Board of County Commissioners to place the measure on the ballot and to finalize legal language.
Next steps: the committee’s recommendation will be forwarded to the Board of County Commissioners for consideration; county staff and bond counsel will draft ballot language and the Board must act in time to put the measure on the Nov. 3 ballot.
