Logan County residents, including the Guthrie area, have enjoyed a lower sales tax rate since the sale of Logan Medical Center and Sheriff Jim Bauman is looking to lower it even more.
Sheriff Jim Bauman is hoping to eliminate the jail tax in 2015.
Bauman announced the detention center is expanding their capabilities to hold more federal prisoners in the county jail and in return will help pay off the cost of the jail. In return eliminate a .75 percent county sales tax.
Bauman is optimistic the majority of the tax (if not all) can go away in 2015.
The center is adding another pod that will house 20 more beds in the five-year-old facility. Bauman says he hopes the construction can be done by April.
Logan County, along with Grady County, are contracted to house federal prisoners because other federal facilities are overcrowded.
Bauman estimates the center houses 30 federal and that the jail. Once completed, the facility will go from 167 beds to 187.
Is it true that we house these “federal” prisoners at the cost of not having the ability to have local police lock up local (more immediately dangerous perhaps) criminals? I’ve heard that Guthrie’s police take people they arrest in, but with the beds taken for the purpose of this “contract,” the freshly arrested criminals are often released? Shouldn’t the contract leave room for local “residents” to protect the local people FIRST? Admirable to stop the bleeding of the sales tax (really needs to be done) but couldn’t it be done faster without spending more money to build on? Sort of a mixed signal. Hey, and WHY is it that Jason Murphey is pointing this out to everyone…He’s concerned about the county bridge…the county jail…I thought he was a “state” elected official. So, why doesn’t he concern himself with STATE level issues (like the Bridge on highway 33 in Guthrie that’s falling apart)? How many people smell a rat here? Is he looking for a future job as a County Commissioner and immersing himself in county business or what? Heck, DO YOUR JOB at the State level first and then consider that…an educated guess would be that he’s grooming Sharpton to take his job and the two of them will just swap “jobs” when term limits become an issue….Oh, that’s right! He can’t do anything for the people of Guthrie at the State level because he’s offended all of his peers in the House of Representatives! Doesn’t play well with others…so he keeps pushing “odd” projects that make him appear “busy” and “effective” but could never point to anything that came back to Logan County because that support will never be there for him. Wow! I may be onto something? How does he actually get re-elected? How is it that “term limits” is his limit? Go figure! Most people know his game…but nobody does anything about it? Very odd. And how long will it take Mr. Transparency to ask that THIS post be taken down? If you ever posted anything like it on HIS Facebook page, it’s deleted in seconds. That’s some “transparency.”
Mr./Mrs. Citizen, It is obvious you are not well read in the political arena due to your comments about “why is he worried about Guthrie…” well, he is a representative in district 31, which includes the Guthrie area, so in fact he IS doing his job. Mr./Mrs. Citizen, there is a biblical verse which says, before you point out the splinter in another s eye remove the plank from yours. You call Rep. Murphy transparent but you conceal your identity as you spout out ignorant statements. If you think, Mr./Mrs. Citizen you can do a better job I am sure Mr. Murphy would love to see your name,your real one, on the next ballot next election. I guess what I am saying is, put up or shut up. You are not going to please everyone when in an office or public light, all one can do is there best. Educate your self, Mr./Mrs. Citizen before you come out looking like an ignorant idiot.///Sean Sugrue, Citizen///
Bauman, Sharpton, Murphy, all full of crap and most everyone knows it. They keep getting elected because of South Logan County voters who are apathetic and vote by a yard sign. They don’t come to Guthrie and don’t care what happens here, they are Edmond people voting in our county and there isn’t crap we can do about it. What I find most interesting about the article is Bauman doesn’t mention where the funds came from to construct the 20 new beds. Every department in this county faces budget cuts every year but he has money for new construction? I hope he can get rid of the tax but it just doesn’t add up. This is simply a “teaser” to the public to act like he is working on it and when it falls short and has to come back to the public with another tax to support the jail, he can say “See I tried”. This is early campaigning for the tax that will come back up, that’s all this is.
This county has the worse working relationships between the offices that is has ever been. All three of these men campaigned on getting rid of the “good ol boy” network, all they did is create their own “network” of hostile work environments. But suck it up kids, we are stuck with them…….but wait, AJ Griffin somehow beat the odds and got elected. There is HOPE afterall.
Mr. Sugrue let me bring “A Citizen” and “Kathy” into perspective for you. “Okiekatt”. Always did like to slam Logan County government while using several different names. It helps make her look more credible since few people believe or understand her rhetoric on this, or any subject. She always uses “South Logan County” as the reason her political preferences loose. Might it actually be her negativity that influences voters and supporters away from her candidates.