The most basic function of economic development is creating jobs, and statewide programs can be the key to accomplishing that.
Oklahoma learned that lesson in 1992, when the state lost its bid for a United Airlines maintenance facility to Indianapolis.
"We didn't have a statewide plan, other than tax credits, that was applicable," says Alan Leech, a spokesman for the Oklahoma Department of Commerce in Oklahoma City. "I'm not sure it was such a bad deal in hindsight."
The loss catalyzed the state Legislature into creating the Oklahoma Quality Jobs Program. Launched in 1993, it is a cash-back incentive program that pays qualified manufacturing and service companies when their payrolls grow $2.5 million or more over three years.
That can mean direct quarterly payments of up to 5 percent of a company's new taxable payroll for up to 10 years, as long as the company continues to add new jobs. The payroll threshold is lower for certain food processing and research and development projects in targeted regions. The Small Employer Quality Jobs Act is tailored to companies with 90 or fewer employees that add at least 10 new jobs in one year.
Total revenue gain has greatly exceeded the program's cost.
"It's a win-win situation," says Gil Broyles, a spokesman for Williams Communications Group, a fiber optics company in Tulsa. "We get a tax rebate and the state gets economic expansion and new taxpayers spending their earned dollars in their communities."
Williams Communications, a business division of Williams, will have about 1,250 employees in Tulsa by the end of 2000, reaping an estimated rebate of $22.6 million over the next decade. The Quality Jobs Program was also integral to the continued Tulsa expansion of WorldCom Inc. and Commercial Financial Services (CFS).
"It means we're able to continue to expand," says CFS spokesman Jason Logan. "It gives us some incentive to do that and more of an incentive to stay in Oklahoma."
Targeting technology
Oklahoma wants even more high-tech industry, especially of the semi-conductor type. Leech says the semiconductor industry projects 35-50 new plants will be built (at an investment price tag of $3-5 billion each) in coming years.
"If that holds true, we want to be a part of the action," says Leech. To capture that "action," the state recently approved three high-tech initiatives.
The Metro Oklahoma Semiconductor Alliance is a collaborative effort between Tulsa and Oklahoma City, the state's two largest metro areas, to attract semiconductor fabrication and other high-tech facilities.
| Mid-America Industrial Park, near Pryor Creek, is home to an Oklahoma State University-Okmulgee facility that offers on-site training and credit courses to the park's 4,000 employees. |
The Oklahoma Semiconductor/ High-Tech Education Alliance brings the state's common, higher education and vocational-technical schools together to ensure a supply of two-year associate degree graduates that have the technical, problem solving and communications skills high-tech companies need.
And the recently passed Oklahoma Technology Transfer Act of 1998 opens the door for cooperative, commercial research and development projects between colleges and universities, researchers and private sector businesses.
"These are big steps to developing high-tech industries in Oklahoma," says Mark Young, director of the Miami Area Economic Development Service. "They'll better prepare the work force."
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