Voters in the City of Tulsa will decide on February 8 the fate of a new franchise fee agreement between the city and Public Service Company of Oklahoma.

The City Council approved a proposed 15-year pact that would let PSO continue to use public right of ways and associated fees. The current 25-year contract expires in July.

Under the new proposal, the annual fee the city charges PSO to use its rights of way the same — 2% of its gross receipts generated within the city limits. That is about $9 million a year and it goes into the city’s general fund.

But the new contract, if approved, would add a 1% fee to fund maintenance and repair of public ways, such as streets, highways and rights of way.

The fee is expected to raise an estimated $4.5 million a year, or $76 million over the life of the agreement. Most of the maintenance fund would pay for utility line burial and highway lighting.