CHICKASHA – Four ex-mayors recently urged the City Council to support the two tax increment finance districts proposed in the “Gateway to Chickasha” project.
“Focus on the future,” said Chris Mosley, former Ward 1 councilman (2005-09) who stepped down earlier this year after six years as mayor. “We have to look at tomorrow, and tomorrow after that.”
Chickasha has “staggering costs to look at,” including street repairs, replacement of aged water and sewer lines, and payments on the new $74 million water treatment plant, Mosley noted. Downtown business owners Brandi Terry and Chet Hitt both commented about low water pressure on the east side of town.
In addition, “Our wastewater plant has some of the same kinds of problems” as the city’s 60- or 70-year-old water treatment plant, City Manager Keith Johnson said in July. “We have to make some significant capital investments to keep it running.”
A TIF “spurs development by people willing to take the risk,” Mosley said. “We need to set a vision for what we want Chickasha to look like.”
For example, the Chickasaw Nation is building a millionsquare- foot outpatient facility hospital at Newcastle, approximately 30 miles northeast, which will serve Native Americans and reportedly will employ up to 3,500 people.
Southwest Ledger contacted the Chickasaw Nation for some details about the project but received no response.
“If just one-tenth of those people moved to Chickasha, it would be a big deal,” said Mosley, the owner of a fourth-generation insurance agency that has more than 20 employees. “We have to be prepared” for that eventuality, he told the Ledger.
A TIF “is not a fringe economic development tool,” said Hank Ross, a former councilman who served eight years as mayor. “It’s prominent throughout the state.” The City of Chickasha needs the tax revenue from the proposed TIFs “to do capital improvement projects,” said Ross, whose grandfather established Ross Seed Co. in Chickasha in 1918.
Hank Ross launched Ross Health Care in 2003, sold it, and later established several other health care companies.
Another former mayor (1989-93), Charles R. Ferguson, wrote a letter in which he said he “fully supports” the proposed TIF districts for three reasons.
He is a lifelong, 70-year-old Chickasha resident who believes “we are on the correct path for strong, stable and lasting growth…”
• A TIF district is “a great economic tool that our city is able to use … to capture more revenue by ad valorem taxes and sales taxes generated by the development of new properties.”
• Admittedly there are “pros and cons concerning TIF districts,” but “hopefully you’ll see the advantages far outweigh the negatives for an opportunity for Chickasha to advance and grow in a positive manner.”
Ferguson and his wife, Holly, are co-owners of Ferguson Funeral Home in Chickasha, where their son, Chris, is employed. And Ferguson previously owned the Pontiac dealership in Chickasha.
With a “yes” vote Sept. 3, “There will be energy, hope, optimism, and opportunity for future generations” of Chickasha residents, said Greg Elliott, chief executive officer of Standley Systems.
Although he previously was Chickasha’s mayor, today Elliott lives approximately five miles north of town. Nevertheless, 70 of Standley’s 190 employees “work out of the Chickasha office,” he said, and the corporate headquarters of the office technology services company founded by his grandfather is based in Chickasha. The company also has branch offices in Lawton and elsewhere.
In addition, Elliott was a member of the committee that proposed Chickasha’s first TIF district, which was created in 2005 and ended in 2020. “We looked at the area we thought needed to be developed,” and that TIF produced “a pretty good return,” he said.
Businesses that opened during that 15-year period included Walgreens, Interurban, Tractor Supply Co., T-Mobile, Jimmy’s Egg, Express Wellness, Little Caesars Pizza, Cotton Patch Café and Tropical Smoothie Café.
“We calculated estimated sales for those businesses and determined that in the last year, those businesses generated an estimated $875,000 in sales tax revenue for the City of Chickasha,” said Jim Cowan, president of the Chickasha Economic Development Council.
“That figure does not include all the businesses like Chick-fil-A that came in after the TIF expired,” he said. “What a huge win for the city to now be getting 100% of the sales tax from these retailers since the TIF has expired.”
The 2005 TIF was “moderately successful,” said Steve LaForge of Chickasha, a real estate investor. “I consider the 2005 TIF to be a success but not the home run we had hoped for,” he said.
Concerns expressed Although the former mayors at the Aug. 19 council meeting endorsed the TIF plan, some anxiety was evident during the f irst public hearing on Aug. 5.
Torry Wise asked the City Council to consider sending the TIF proposal to a vote of Chickasha residents. And Trenton Rippy of Chickasha expressed concern about the potential for private property being seized by eminent domain.
There is no mention of eminent domain in the 19page project plan. Furthermore, although Oklahoma law allows the seizure of private property for a public purpose such as construction of a highway, state law prohibits the conf iscation of private property for private economic development.
The Legislature passed that statute after the 2005 U.S. Supreme Court opinion in Kelo vs. City of New London, Connecticut. The court ruled 5-4 that use of eminent domain to transfer land from one private owner to another private owner to further economic development does not violate the “takings clause” of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.