State Chamber: Public Backs Business Incentives

From The State Chamber Media Office ~ More than 85 percent of Oklahomans support continued offering of business incentives to help attract and retain jobs and investment in Oklahoma when asked in a recent SoonerPoll survey.

The results come at a time when a House and Senate Joint Task Force is meeting to analyze tax incentives offered by the state to ensure they are working to bring economic development and growth to Oklahoma. The committee met today to discuss the Investment/New Jobs Tax Credit and the Oklahoma Quality Jobs Program.

When asked “Should the state of Oklahoma continue to offer business incentives to help attract and retain jobs and investment in Oklahoma,” 85.3 percent of poll respondents said ‘Yes,’ with only 11.1 percent opposing such efforts and 2.6 percent having no opinion on the issue. One percent of respondents did not respond to the question at all.

“A super majority of those polled understand that Oklahoma has to compete with surrounding states when it comes to economic development and job creation. Many of those states offer incentive packages to help give their states the edge and Oklahoma needs effective incentives to compete,” said State Chamber President Fred Morgan.

“We support Rep. Dank and Sen. Mazzei’s efforts to make sure the credits offered are working to create jobs and investment, in addition to being transparent and accountable. This poll shows that Oklahomans want the jobs these incentives bring to our state and want to see our state continue to compete for business relocation, retention and expansion,” Morgan concluded.

SoonerPoll.com, Oklahoma’s public opinion pollster, was commissioned for this poll by the State Chamber of Oklahoma. SoonerPoll.com conducted the scientific poll July 25-Aug. 11. Likely Oklahoma voters were selected at random and given the opportunity to participate in the poll by phone or online. Of the 587 respondents who participated, 17 took the survey online and 570 responded via telephone interview. The margin of error is plus or minus 4.04 percentage points.

Share |