LAWTON TIF UPDATE
LAWTON – Lawton City Council approved a plan to safeguard one local business and fund developments in the city’s western industrial park.
After months of deliberating the percentages affecting the taxing jurisdictions, the nine-member STEDI review committee came away with three versions for Council to consider, emphasizing that the third version was most favored by the committee. The Skills Training, Education, Development and Infrastructure (STEDI) plan is a tax increment funding program that will use a percentage of the increased revenue from ad valorem and sales taxes that are generated in the 13 designated districts to draw non-retail businesses into Lawton.
Revenue generated from 12 of the TIF districts is set to fund improvement projects to the western industrial park and create incentive packages to appeal to non-retail companies looking to relocate. It was argued that without the funding and developments in place, the timeline for readily available sites would deter prospective businesses from the area. Dan Bachelor, attorney with the Center for Economic Development Law, stated, “Under all of the plans, once the first $30 million of most critical public improvements have been financed, then the allocations to the taxing jurisdictions would increase their allocations to the 100% benefit level.”
THREE VERSIONS EXPLAINED
Bachelor then explained the differences between the three versions and how each impacted the city’s expected growth. With version one, $30 million in TIF revenues would be designated toward public infrastructure development before schools would receive funding for STEM education programs. It “would give absolute priority of the use of tax increment revenues for investment and extension of public infrastructure to make these sites developable.”
Version two would “provide 25% to the public schools and the taxing jurisdictions from the beginning,” said Bachelor during a Nov. 25 meeting. Once the “$30 million in financing for public improvements is reached ...the operational allocations would then move to the 100% along with funding for STEM.” Version three “would provide up to 35% of the net operating revenue to benefit the public schools only, leaving the other taxing jurisdictions at the 25% mark.” While 12 of the districts are geared to attract companies to the area, TIF District No. 3 was established to support Republic Paperboard’s $94 million investment into an innovative clay-based coating process which will create approximately 20 high-quality jobs to the Lawton-based operation.
With newsprint or paper fiber in short supply, the company’s president, Ray Howard, said that without the plan, the company could be forced to close. In an earlier interview, Howard stated, “In our case, if we don’t get the TIF, I’m not able to put in the coater. Then, at some point, we run the risk of shutting down the whole plant. That’s 150 high-paying jobs.” Echoing Bachelor’s Dec. 10 presentation of the review committee’s recommendations, Mayor Stan Booker later commented that the TIF should stimulate growth and bring high quality, top-paying jobs to the area.