By Carolyn Cole
Published on February 7, 2008

A state question requiring cities with booming retail districts to share their sales tax revenue with other municipalities could be sent to voters in November.

If House Joint Resolution 1056, authored by Rep. Steve Martin, R- Bartlesville, makes it through the Legislature this session, the measure would call for a vote of the people to amend the state’s constitution to create the Municipal Sales Tax Redistribution Fund. Starting July 2009, 1 cent from each city’s sales tax would be placed in the fund and redistributed among municipalities, based on population.

For example, Mustang collects 4 cents of sales tax on each $1 of merchandise sold. If the Legislature and voters approve the proposal, Mustang would collect 3 cents, and 1 cent would be placed in the fund for redistribution.

Rep. Phil Richardson, R-Minco, said he is supporting the proposal and helped his friend write the measure. As a child, Richardson said his family was able to do almost all of their shopping in his hometown, Pocasset, but by the time he graduated from high school in 1960, Oklahomans’ shopping patterns started to change.

Interstates and highways made travel easier between towns, and large department stores and big box retailers sprang up near population centers and on highways, leaving rural Oklahoma towns, like Pocasset, Minco, Union City and Calumet, in the dust.