In his fifth state of the city address to the Broken Arrow Chamber, City Manager Michael Spurgeon said Wednesday the state of the city is strong.
"We’re one of the safest cities in Oklahoma and in America. Secondly is that sales tax is coming in right at projections, use tax — financially, things, they’re going very well right now. And then the fact that we’re seeing tremendous growth in our community in the private sector," Spurgeon said.
Spurgeon noted the city has issued 20 commercial building permits and more than 530 residential ones this year.
"That tells you right there that the private sector believes that Broken Arrow’s a great investment, and that great investment is going to turn into a need for additional services," Spurgeon said.
Broken Arrow’s population is up 15% since the last Census, and Spurgeon said the city is issuing $12 million to $35 million in bonds a year in order to pay for capital projects to accommodate thousands of new residents.
"Every year for the next five years, I can easily see us having close to if not over $100 million worth of traditional streets, roads, stormwater, parks and recreation, public facilities to continue to provide great services and make sure that we have the services we needed to support a growing community," Spurgeon said.
Around $117 million in capital projects are currently underway in Broken Arrow.
Spurgeon said having city operations limited to sales tax revenue complicates things, but he’s hopeful the opening of a couple mixed-use developments downtown and legislative action to allow other funding streams will help.
