OKLAHOMA CITY –
Details of Senate Bill 1696:
- SB 1696 creates the Oklahoma Talent Attraction and Relocation Revolving Fund to be managed by the Oklahoma Department of Commerce.
- The Fund shall be used to provide grants using the Oklahoma Talent Attraction and Relocation Program to support talent recruitment programs that motivate households to relocate to Oklahoma from outside the state.
- The measure provides that the Department may not award more than $250,000.00 in grant funds to a single municipality each year.
- The Department shall disburse half of the funding up front and the remaining half upon verifying the recipient has successfully met at least half of the household goal stated in the approved talent recruitment program plan.
- Eligible recipients shall apply to the Department for each grant.
- The application shall cover the planned recruitment program, the household goal, the estimated tax and economic impact, and evidence that the incentives are not duplicative. Applicants must demonstrate the ability to fund at least 20% of the proposed program.
- The Department may require the recipient to pay back the funds if the goals are not met or if the funds were misused.
- Individual households must meet an income threshold of $55,000.00.
- The bill is authored by Sen. Bill Coleman, ( R) Ponca City.
- SB 1969 passed 29-14 and now moves to the house for consideration.
Targeting rural deserts in Oklahoma:
“I recently took a trip from Pawhuska to the capitol, and I kind of went through the back roads. And, Haley, it’s not fun out there in rural Oklahoma right now. It is a declining population, and I think we need to reverse that. This will give a nice assist to the rural communities that don’t have those big tax bases that can go after a whole lot of people,” said Sen. Coleman.
Oklahoma’s two largest cities, Oklahoma City and Tulsa, would not be able to utilize this program. It would specifically be geared towards smaller towns in rural Oklahoma.
“Hopefully this will bring some more people in and move to what I prefer is our rural communities, because I’m a rural legislator,” said Sen. Coleman.
Past economic development incentives failed in years past:
“This would be different because the investments are not going to be near as large as it is to have a company come here to have an employee come here. Typically it’s a $5,000 cash incentive, plus whatever those towns can think of to add to a package to get an individual in here. It’s geared more toward individual cities, those in smaller areas, and it’s also geared toward the individual. We’re not incentivizing a company. We’re incentivizing an individual to come here,” said Sen. Coleman.
Individualized incentive packages:
“It’s up to these economic development organizations or chambers of commerce or anybody else that can use this grant money to attract people from out of state. Like in Ponca City, you could develop a package. Come move here and we’ll give you $5,000 once we see a lease or a mortgage. We’ll also give you lunch once every three months at the Rusty Barrel, a season pass to the Ponca Playhouse, and three rounds of golf at Lew Wentz golf course,” said Sen. Coleman.
Could benefit remote workers:
“Some of those individuals could be people that now work at home, especially after COVID. we’ve seen a big increase in that. these people, it doesn’t matter where some of these people are, if you have good high speed internet, which i think we do all across oklahoma, we could attract those people here. People that are living in a big urban setting, people that are paying $5,000 a month for 900ft² of living space. Those are the people that could come in here,” said Sen. Coleman.
Success of a similar program in Indiana:
“In Indiana, where they’ve really matured this program, 79% of the people that they have brought in from out of state have chosen to move to either stagnant or not, declining population towns,” said Sen. Coleman.
Long term investment for rural Oklahoma:
“Long term, I hope I see population growth, there’s no doubt about it. I think if we get a whole bunch of people to put in a bunch of good ideas together, we’ll really see this thing solidify and grow.”
