Lead Committee postpones approval of Commerce strategic plan, seeks more data and clearer implementation

The Lead Committee on Economic Development declined to approve the Oklahoma Department of Commercefive-year strategic plan and recommended no action at the meeting, saying the plan needs more work and outside analysis before the committee signs off.

Kristen Thompson, co-chair of the Lead Committee and a state representative from District 22, told the department, "I am going to recommend no action today on this." The committee instead asked Commerce to return with additional detail after the agency completes an outside procurement and deeper data work.

The decision came after Department of Commerce officials spent more than two hours briefing committee members on a draft strategic plan and implementation tactics. Heather Turner, executive director of CORE (Community development, Outreach, Revitalization and Enterprise), described COREas a division focused on local partnerships and said the planand the departmentis a starting point to gather data and align programs. Evan Brown, director of EDGE (the state's economic development division), summarized EDGE's role as the state's primary point of contact for company relocations and expansions.

Committee members raised procedural and substantive concerns. Members pressed Commerce on the procurement timeline for a consultant the agency intends to hire to conduct feasibility studies and build a deeper dataset; Commerce said it issued an RFQ in the fall, followed by an RFP process that the agency put to OMES in December and that the solicitation "went live" this month. Committee members said the timing left too little information for the committee to attach its statutory approval to the draft plan.

Lawmakers also asked for clearer implementation steps and accountability. The committee sought specifics on how Commerce will move from strategic goals to measurable action, including training for regional development staff, upgrades to information systems, and defined responsibilities across the department. Representative Trey Caldwell and other members urged Commerce to show "how" the policies will be operationalized rather than only the goals and buzzwords.

Commerce officials outlined a number of implementation initiatives they called tangible actions: creating an "economic development 101" curriculum to help smaller communities fill out site-readiness applications; restarting onboarding and training across the department; expanding Main Street infrastructure matching projects through a finance authority using P3 mechanisms; and surveying economic developers to capture a broader dataset on projects and industry wins that fall outside current Commerce records.

Committee members also asked about state exposure from recent incentive activity. Brown said Commerce "has initiated that process" to seek recovery of the $1,000,000 the agency paid to Canoe and that the department is working with legal counsel to determine the state's position. "We're trying to figure out where we stand in the line of payback," Brown said, and he added that other potential closing funds or incentives tied to the Canoe matter have been pulled so there is no exposure beyond the amount already paid.

Other questions addressed international trade and earlier appropriations. Members asked for a report on a prior GO program and related trade-office work funded by the Legislature, and Commerce agreed to follow up with details on how those funds were spent and what results were produced.

Lawmakers also pressed Commerce about incubator and tax-credit accountability after the incentive review committee reported instances in which entities sought tax credits without actually participating in incubator programs. Commerce said it will propose additional accountability measures for incubator tax credits and consider incentives or supports for hosts that bear the operational costs of state-certified incubators.

Several members urged Commerce to highlight the state's comparative strengths more directly in the plan. Committee members pointed to aerospace, bioscience, agribusiness, manufacturing and renewable energy as sectors where Oklahoma has existing clusters and regional ecosystems that the department should "own" in its targeting work. Members additionally asked that tribal governments and tribal economic partners be called out explicitly as strategic partners in the document.

Thompson closed the discussion by saying the committee must eventually statutorily approve the plan but that "I don't think this is ready for us to put our name on," and she asked Commerce to return after the RFP process and additional stakeholder work. The meeting then moved to executive sessions for project briefings; non-members were asked to leave.

The committee did not take a formal recorded roll-call vote on a motion. The chair's recommendation of no action was the formal outcome and the plan will return to the Lead Committee for consideration after Commerce submits further information and materials requested by the members.

Reported excerpts and attributions in this article come from the Lead Committee meeting transcript: Heather Turner, executive director of CORE; Evan Brown, director of EDGE; and Kristen Thompson, co-chair of the Lead Committee and state representative for District 22. Other participants who asked questions or offered comment during the meeting include Representative Trey Caldwell (Appropriations Chair, House District 63), Representative John Kane (Vice Chair), Senator Chuck Hall (Appropriations Chair, Senate District 20), Representative Mike Osborne (House District 81) and other committee members whose remarks are summarized.