Police or higher taxas; time for Agra to choose.

Agra - Agra residents may soon have to decide between having a police department and having the highest tax rate in Oklahoma. <br><br>A vote is scheduled Tuesday on a proposed two-cent sales tax increase.

Sunday, July 6th 2003, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Agra - Agra residents may soon have to decide between having a police department and having the highest tax rate in Oklahoma.

A vote is scheduled Tuesday on a proposed two-cent sales tax increase.

The hike could keep the two-man Agra Police Department from closing, but would indefinitely raise the municipal tax rate from four cents to six cents, the highest in the state.

With the one percent tax in Lincoln County plus the four-point-five percent state tax, Agra residents would pay eleven-point-five percent if the measure passes.

Agra currently pays its police officers through federal grants, but the grants will soon run out.

Mayor Ray Troxtell says the tax would increase town income by about two-thousand dollars a month, and all the money would be used to pay the officers.

Officer Richard Roe says the town needs a police department.