Choctaw police officers currently book suspects into a jail cell built from half of a shipping container, tucked inside a converted hardware store that has served as the department's headquarters since 2002. On August 25, Choctaw voters will decide whether to fix that, along with fire department shortfalls and a long-sought recreation center, through a single 3/4-cent sales tax increase that would remain in effect for up to 20 years.
The measure, formalized through Ordinance No. 983-2026 and Resolution No. 26-17 when the Choctaw City Council approved it in May, asks residents to weigh in on one bundled proposition rather than separate votes for each project, according to KOKH. Council members attached emergency clauses to the ordinance to get it published and placed on the special election ballot in time, according to city council meeting minutes from the City of Choctaw. If approved, the new revenue would push Choctaw's combined sales tax rate from its current 9.75% to 10.5%, per tax-rate data compiled by Avalara, which combines the city's 4.25% municipal rate with Oklahoma's 4.5% state rate and Oklahoma County's 1.0% rate.
A Police Station Born From Tornado Wreckage
The current police department building has a backstory rooted in disaster. The original Choctaw police station was destroyed by a tornado, part of the devastation from the historic May 3, 1999 outbreak that spawned 70 tornadoes statewide and caused over a billion dollars in damage across the Oklahoma City metro, according to the National Weather Service. Officers have operated out of a former hardware store ever since the department relocated there in 2002.
Choctaw Police Chief Kelly Marshall has described the makeshift setup bluntly, telling KOKH that the building the department now works from used to be a hardware store, and Marshall said the jail cell is literally built from half of a shipping container. The department has just one jail cell to work with, according to the same report, and city officials say Choctaw needs a dedicated space for animal control that doesn't currently exist. If voters approve the tax, a new police department building is estimated to cost a little over six million dollars, with an additional roughly $50,000 earmarked for an animal control facility.
Fire Upgrades and a First-Ever YMCA
The proposition would also direct an estimated $4.4 million toward Fire Station #1, covering building improvements and new apparatus needs, per KOKH's reporting. The largest single piece of the plan, however, is Choctaw's first YMCA Recreation and Wellness Center, a $27 million, 56,000-square-foot facility that would include indoor aquatics, a full-sized gymnasium, wellness areas, childcare spaces, and dedicated programs for youth and seniors, according to city planning documents published by the City of Choctaw. The facility would be operated by the YMCA of Greater Oklahoma City.
Ordinance language written into the ballot measure legally restricts every dollar the tax generates, over its full 20-year maximum term, to those same three projects: the police department and animal control facility, Fire Station #1 upgrades, and the YMCA center. City officials say council members are prohibited from reallocating any of the 0.75% tax revenue into general operating funds, a mechanism intended to reassure voters the money can't drift toward unrelated spending.
Why One Vote for Three Different Projects
That single-proposition structure has become the flashpoint of the campaign. During community informational meetings held throughout August, residents voiced broad support for modernizing police and fire infrastructure, but many also expressed concern that bundling the YMCA project into the same vote could put public safety funding at risk if the whole package fails. Some residents reportedly asked city officials directly why recreation and public safety weren't split into separate ballot questions.
KOKH reports that some Choctaw residents have said the city's sales tax is already high, while others have expressed support for the proposed increase on social media. The city hasn't asked voters for a municipal sales tax increase since 2010, when a quarter-cent hike brought the rate to its current 4.25% to fund city parks — the most recent in a string of increases dating back to 1977 and 1989, and again in 2006, based on Choctaw Ward 5 council records. Before this measure, Choctaw had gone 16 years without a successful sales tax increase.
How Choctaw's Approach Differs From Its Neighbor
The debate over funding mechanisms has drawn comparisons to nearby Midwest City, where local officials and the YMCA of Greater Oklahoma City announced a $40 million partnership in December 2024 to build a 74,000-square-foot YMCA facility. That project was funded through hospital authority funds and school district partnerships rather than a dedicated sales tax increase, according to SSM Health. Choctaw's path, by contrast, ties its recreation center's fate directly to voter approval of a tax hike alongside public safety spending.
The stakes are tied to a city that has grown considerably in recent years. Census Bureau estimates project Choctaw's 2026 population at 12,579 residents with a median household income of $100,574, reflecting a 28.6% increase in population since 2000, according to World Population Review. That growth has placed added demand on public safety and municipal infrastructure that predates the current boom, including a police department still headquartered in a building never designed to hold one.
Sales tax remains Choctaw's primary funding source for capital improvements and general operations; the city collected $9,197,345.20 in municipal sales tax revenue during fiscal year 2023-2024, according to Ward 5 council records. Whether that funding base is enough to justify asking voters to approve three projects in one motion — or whether the bundled structure could sink the entire package, including the police and fire upgrades most residents appear to support — will be settled when polls close Tuesday.
