Cities to vote on bonds

Manny Gamallo

Nov. 8, 2009 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- School bond issues at Pawhuska and Mounds are among just a few proposals Tulsa-area voters will face in Tuesday's elections.

Polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m.

At Pawhuska, located in Osage County, the school district is seeking a total of $9,610,000 for school-building and transportation needs.

School Superintendent Ben West noted that property taxes will not be increased if voters give their approval. A supermajority of 60 percent is required for the approval of school bonds in Oklahoma.

West said property owners would be spared a tax increase, largely because the new bonds, if approved, would be phased in as current bonds are paid off.

Also for the first time, West said, the school district will go to a local trust authority to help finance the immediate school building and transportation needs.

The funding will be done through a lease-purchase revenue plan in which the district would have a trust authority issue bonds on its behalf.

The school district would receive the money immediately and would repay the authority at a later date through the sale of the school bonds.

The total package will come in two election propositions: the first one of $9,370,000 for school-building upgrades, while the second one seeks $240,000 for new buses.

At Mounds, in southern Creek County, the school district is seeking a total of $2,750,000 for school building and equipment needs, along with new school buses. Mounds officials said the bond issue,

if approved, won't raise local property taxes.

In another Creek County election, voters at Bristow will consider two sales tax questions rolled into one proposition, plus a second sales tax question in another proposition.

The first proposition calls for the extension of an existing half-cent sales tax until 2020 to pay off street work, and water and sewer improvements. That tax had been set to expire in 2015.

That same proposition also asks voters for approval of an added half-cent sales tax until 2030 for street work, along with the upgrading of the sewer treatment plant and the city's water lines.

The second proposition seeks approval of an added penny sales tax for the construction of a new hospital.

Manny Gamallo 581-8386 manny.gamallo@tulsaworld.com

Newstex ID: KRTB-0205-39540594