In Tuesday night's Dewey City Council meeting, the council decided to present to Dewey voters a proposal to raise the city's sales tax rate by four-tenths of a cent. Public meetings have been held in recent weeks to discuss this possibility and see where the public stood on the matter.

Mayor Tom Hays says this has been discussed for a little over three years now. Three council members and Hays himself discussed the possibility to increase Dewey's sales tax rate three years ago when Bartlesville raised it's sales tax rate by four-tenths of a cent. They decided then to wait as long as they could to bring forth the possibility of increasing Dewey's sales tax rate. Considering where Dewey is with their budget, Hays believes it is time to present the idea to voters.

According to City Manager Kevin Trease, the sales tax over the years has been down which affected Dewey's general fund. If the voters go on to approve the four-tenths of a cent, Trease says the general fund will see a $100,000 increase. That matches the amount the general fund has lost over the years. Trease says that's about where the funds are now compared to a year ago.

The passed four-tenths of a cent increase to Dewey's sales tax rate will not go into affect immediately. The Dewey City Council still has to pass a resolution in their next meeting for the item to make it to voters on the May 14th ballot. Dewey residents haven't voted to increase the city's sales tax rate since 1976.