Tulsa World
By RANDY KREHBIEL World Staff Writer
Published: 4/17/20112:22 AM
Last Modified: 4/17/20115:18 AM
In economic development, as in many things, nothing seems to work quite like cash.
This year, and for most of the past decade, chambers of commerce in the state have lobbied for a "closing fund" - a pot of money to be used at the governor's discretion to attract businesses to Oklahoma.
Such funds are extremely popular. About 30 states have them, up from just eight in 2004. The best known is the Texas Enterprise Fund, which has given out $363 million since its inception seven years ago.
"We had a fairly major prospect ... almost two years ago," said Jim Fram, vice president for economic development at the Tulsa Metro Chamber. "It was down to Tulsa, Amarillo, Texas and Topeka, Kan. They raved about our staff and how hard we worked for them, but in the end they landed in Amarillo because the governor of Texas could write a check to buy a building for them."
Arkansas, which created closing fund controlled by the governor in 2007, claims to have added 26,000 jobs because of it... FULL ARTICLE
Posted on
Sun, April 17, 2011
by John Cox