State Bond Adviser: Oklahoma’s Low Costs a Magnet for Out-of-State Business

• Joe Wertz
  BioRecent Stories

  

  Joe Wertz was a reporter and managing editor for StateImpact Oklahoma from 2011-2019. He reported on energy and environment issues for national NPR audiences and other national outlets. He previously worked as a managing editor, assistant editor and staff reporter at several major Oklahoma newspapers and studied journalism at the University of Central Oklahoma.

The low cost of doing business has put Oklahoma on the radar of companies from other states.

Companies from Iowa and California are transferring operations to cities like Enid and Tulsa, the state’s bond adviser said Thursday, according to an Oklahoman report. Such companies are using a state loan program to finance the deals, reports the paper’s Michael McNutt.

“We’re starting to see more businesses come in recognizing the benefits of a good labor pool, inexpensive land, low cost of operations,” said Jim Joseph, the state’s bond adviser. “You put those things together and it’s a pretty good business environment.”

Oklahoma’s Council of Bond Oversight approved a pair of $3 million financial deals on Thursday, The Oklahoman reports.

One loan involves Lufthansa Technik Component Services — an operation that maintains, repairs and overhauls civilian aircraft — which is investing in a $19.8 million expansion in Tulsa that’s expected to add 51 jobs over five years.

The other loan is with Advance Pierre Foods, a company founded in Enid that later relocated to Cincinnati. Advance will undergo a $12.9 million renovation and upgrade that’s expected to add 50 jobs over five years.

The financial arrangement is through a state program that allows the company’s employee withholding taxes to be collected by the Oklahoma Tax Commission and placed in a special account.

That money will be transferred to the Oklahoma Finance Development Authority and will be used to pay the debt service on the notes.