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September 9, 2010

MORNING BRIEFING - RCIDA needs more money

Commissioners say they solved funding problem

Zack Stoycoff Staff Reporter

CLAREMORE — The Rogers County Industrial Development Authority needs money from this year’s budget to create jobs, Director Mickey Thompson told Rogers County commissioners this week.

Thompson’s appeal comes just a week after three county departments said they need money for new hires this year — and two months after commissioners said they are unsure how to fund RCIDA at all.

Bond money from a county RCB Bank account can be used to fund RCIDA , commissioners said. But for specific amounts, they will have to check with bank officials.

“Right now it’s just a matter of getting the money transferred from RCB to the county and then to RCIDA,” District 3 commissioner Kirt Thacker said. “We need to get the numbers of what we have and what they can send back and — I’m just talking here — a percentage of that can go to RCIDA.”

Commissioners are finalizing the county’s budget for the fiscal year that began July 1. They plan to vote on a final version this Monday so they can send it to the excise board for approval.

Thompson said when businesses know RCIDA officials have the financial support of local government, they are more willing to relocate and expand in Rogers County.

More money also means the authority is able to provide more incentives to businesses and create industrial parks to lure them, he said.

He pointed to Inola, where RCIDA is prepping to build onto Summerlin Industrial Park, as an example of what it can do with a little cash, he said.

“I’m not particularly familiar with the recent history of RCIDA and what’s happened, but I know a little about economic development,” he said. “When I think of economic development I think of jobs. People in Rogers County don’t think of anything else.”

Thompson, the former CEO of the Broken Arrow Chamber of Commerce, became RCIDA director in June.

He said RCIDA needs to keep building infrastructure and continue its incubator program for startup businesses, but that alone isn’t enough — economic development organizations need to be able to “sweeten the deal.”

“RCIDA is in the business of economic development,” he said. “I believe that is possible in good times but I believe it is especially possible in hard times.”

The fringe of development in Oklahoma is in western Rogers County and continues to move east, he said. To take advantage, the county needs to offer tax breaks and other incentives — as well as create more industrial parks, he said.

The county has done little of either.

“We have very few (industrial park sites) and what we have, they’re not necessarily what they should be,” Thompson said.

Many smaller Tulsa businesses are subject to higher land costs and more regulations and will find a home in Rogers County if RCIDA is aggressive in courting them, he said.

“We can’t do that without investment money,” he said.

Thompson did not say how much money RCIDA needs and commissioners stopped short of saying bond money would completely fund the authority.

Thacker called it a “step in the right direction.”

“I agree with their mission that jobs are important,” Thacker said. Getting bond money for that goal  “appears to be more of a formality.”

Said District 1 Commissioner Dan DeLozier: “It’s a tough economic time for everybody.”

Thompson noted that two significant businesses are thinking about moving to Rogers County. Both would add about 250 jobs.

He cautioned that it’s not clear whether they will end up in Rogers County.

Last week, the sheriff’s office, court clerk and election board said they need more from this year’s budget to hire new employees. The sheriff’s office has a severe shortfall in its patrol force and the court clerk has lost eight employees to due cuts on the state level.

Rebecca Dealy, election board secretary, says she needs another employee to reach out to military voters over the Internet and free up time to tackle voter apathy in Rogers County.

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