by Jordan Green, News Editor
Woods County voters on Tuesday passed a proposal increasing their property tax rates to fund emergency medical services across the county.
Statewide, voters rejected two state questions and overwhelmingly voted to reelect Republican President Donald Trump, though the results of the presidential election may not be decided nationwide for days or weeks.
Woods County residents voted 2,089 to 1,523 to increase their property taxes by 3 mills on the dollar of a property’s assessed valuation. The new tax levy will never expire unless a future ballot proposition to lower or eliminate it is passed.
County officials expect to collect about $645,000 per year from the proposal to fund a new EMS district, which local medical officials say will provide a steady revenue stream for ambulance services in Alva, Freedom and Waynoka.
Woods County commissioners will appoint three members from each EMS station to serve on a board overseeing the money collected by the tax levy.
While the funds will be split between the EMS services in the three cities, each of the three EMS stations will continue to operate independently.
“It’ll have to be a joint venture between the cities and this board,” Randy McMurphy, chair of the Woods County Commissioners, told the Northwestern News in a recent interview. “I’m not on this board. It’s just an oversight to see that the funds are spent right where they need to be spent.”
Julie Dennis, director of Alva EMS, told the News in a previous interview that the tax will allow county ambulance services to buy new equipment.
“It will ensure more effective coverage for our service,” Dennis said. “With the current trend of the state regulations increasing the needs and requirements to be met to maintain current license … this would produce and provide a mechanism in which we could potentially purchase that equipment that we need.”
STATE QUESTIONS FAIL
Oklahoma voters overwhelmingly rejected a state question that could have kept prison sentences lower for people convicted of certain non-violent offenses and a question that could have helped fund the state’s expanded Medicaid program.
Voters rejected State Question 805, which would end the use of sentence enhancements for people convicted of certain non-violent crimes, by a vote of 807,225 to 517,685, unofficial election results showed as of 11 p.m. Tuesday night.
Under Oklahoma law, non-violent offenses include speeding, stealing, larceny, some drug crimes, and some forms of domestic violence.
Numerous state and local officials spoke out against the measure, including both candidates for the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office. Oklahoma County is the state’s largest.
State Question 814 would have taken some payments toward the state’s Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust, better known as TSET, and given that money to the State Legislature.
If the proposition had passed, legislators would have had millions of dollars more per year to use at their discretion.
While some lawmakers pitched the state question as a way to fund Medicaid expansion, the question didn’t mandate that the money had to be used for Medicaid costs.
TRUMP WINS OKLAHOMA; NATIONAL RESULTS
STILL UNKNOWN
No one knows when the results of the presidential race will be finalized nationwide because of the high number of mail-in ballots cast in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. But in deep-red Oklahoma, voters left little room for doubt as to whom their favored candidate is.
President Donald Trump won all seven of Oklahoma’s electoral votes and the state’s popular vote in Tuesday’s election, beating Democratic challenger Joe Biden in the state by nearly 30%.
Trump won 893,138 to 441,748 over Biden statewide.
In Woods County, Trump won 2,989 to 590 over Biden, unofficial Tuesday night results from the state election board showed.