Published: March 24, 2008 01:58 pm         

How should Public Safety Center be funded?

Opinions vary on how to pay for the proposed $29 million new police station

EDMOND — Most people in Edmond agree a new police station facility is needed to replace the overcrowded downtown building design that is not in the best interest of the community. Opinions differ on how to pay for the proposed $29 million Public Safety Center.

The City of Edmond’s proposed ad valorem tax will go to a vote of the people on July 29 or Aug. 26.

The 90,000-square-foot Public Safety Center would house the Edmond Police Department, the Central Communications Department and the Emergency Management Department.

Setting the bond for five years will increase the property tax of a $100,000 home by $114 a year or $76 a year if the bond lasts for 10 years, said City Treasurer Stephen Schaus. The median price of a home in Edmond is $234,000. The bond would increase taxes on a median-size home by $179 a year for 10 years.

There’s no question that Edmond needs a new police department facility, said Oklahoma County Commissioner Ray Vaughn, a resident of Edmond since 1961. He said the City of Edmond’s proposed ad valorem tax is the best way to fund the facility.

“It’s a short-term single project type of approach. That’s a good way to take care of those public service needs,” Vaughn said.

An in-house survey conducted by City Manager Larry Stevens’ office identified 12 medium- to large-sized cities in Oklahoma that already are using property tax revenue to help fund capital projects. These cities include Norman, Stillwater, Moore, Midwest City, Lawton, Sand Springs, Tulsa, Bartlesville, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma City and Jenks.

“Edmond would certainly not be unique among Oklahoma cities in utilizing this revenue source to help fund capital needs,” Stevens said. Oklahoma City recently passed an $835 million ad valorem bond issue in December for 11 different groupings of capital projects.

“All of these initiatives passed with 78 percent or more voter approval,” Stevens said.

Roland Dawson, retired manager of the Oklahoma Municipal Power Authority, said Edmond should pursue the lowest cost option to get the facility built. He said downtown is probably not the most practical site to build the police station because of limited space.

Dawson said the primary reason he would support the general obligation bond is because an ad valorem tax would be tax deductible under the IRS guidelines, opposed to a sales tax, which is not tax deductible.

Secondly, he said the city needs to diversify its revenue stream as its too dependent on sales tax and utility charges.

“The third issue is I think of a sales tax as regressive,” Dawson said.

Richard Prawdzienski said the ad valorem would be “more regressive than sales taxes for the 6,800 renters in Edmond,” he said.

Prawdzienski owns a number of rental properties in Edmond. A new increase of ad valorem tax to fund a new Edmond Police facility could cause him to raise rents to cover for the cost of the additional property tax, he said

“The ad valorem tax would be considered an expense; failure to control this expense would reduce profit,” Prawdzienski said.

However, raising rents to pay for increased ad valorem tax expense would be problematic because Edmond rental units are in competition with those in Oklahoma City, he said.

“Currently, many renters are willing to pay a premium for Edmond’s safety factor, location, etceteras, but there is a breaking point,” he said. “Increasing as low as $10 a month will cause people to look south to OKC. Having less people renting in Edmond can mean vacancy longer. Longer vacancy doesn’t just affect landlords. If the unit is vacant for a month or two, (it) means there is (one less) shopper in Edmond.”

Decreased rental profits due to vacancies could harm property values, he said.

Charlotte Nutt is skeptical that the proposed general obligation bond would ever go off the taxpayers’ rolls even though the Edmond City Council has stated the property tax would be temporary.

She supports the need for a newly designed police station, but said that instead of an ad valorem tax, a sales tax would be a better way to pay for the Public Safety Center.

“You’d get the people who come into to shop. They would help us pay for it,” said Nutt, secretary of the Edmond Citizen’s Police Academy Alumni Association. “Look at all the college kids that shop and the people that go through the interstate traveling through Edmond.”

Nutt said the ad valorem tax would be difficult for the elderly living on fixed incomes.

“I was hoping (the City Council) would give us a choice,” she said. “As much as I support the (police) chief, and I worked hard with this organization, there’s a possibility I would vote no because I am against the ad valorem.”

Gene Woods said he’s “torn down the middle” about supporting an ad valorem tax to fund the Public Safety Center.

“I’d really like to see the ad valorem tax,” said Woods, a highway designer. “But then you get to thinking about it — to me — it seems more limited than if it’s financed with a sales tax going to a broader range of people that would be hit to contribute to it.”

Woods said a new police station is needed, but he expects voters to defeat the measure because of the ad valorem tax proposal.



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