Am I confused or just uninformed? How can the City of Lawton levy taxes for unincorporated areas of Commanche County? Where is Keith Jackson when you need him?

LAWTON-- The mayor's infrastructure task force presented their tax proposal to the Lawton council Tuesday night. It's aimed at paying for millions of dollars in street and water improvements.

Task force chairman, John Hester, proposed one new tax and the extension of two quarter-cent taxes.

One is a city sales tax due to expire at the end of June. They propose a 7-year extension that would raise $17.5 million for city projects. They also proposed extending a quarter-cent county sales tax for ten years, which would raise around $26 million, for jail operations and economic development.

The last tax is a new sales tax of one and 3-quarter cents for unincorporated areas in Comanche County. It would run for 11.5 years and raise $18 million for rural fire departments and road projects.

The council did not vote on the proposal at Tuesday's meeting. They will discuss it again next Tuesday, and then decide if they'll put the proposal to a vote of the people.