9.16.24 – News 9 -By: Kristen Weaver
The results are in from a poll sent out to hundreds of business owners in the state. The Business Leaders poll found that a lot of our business owners have the same concerns when it comes to how things can improve in the state, the top being workforce, and education.
The poll results show that many business leaders in Oklahoma are overall happy with how state leaders deal with them.
“The poll indicates overall business leaders see the economy as strong,” said Ben Lepak, the Executive Director of the State Chamber Research Foundation.
Ben Lepak said this was sent out to 325 business owners across the state.
One of them was Dana Weber, the CEO of Webco Industries in Sand Springs. The company employs 1500 people, has five facilities, and ships steel products nationwide.
“I really think we are doing an excellent job,” Weber said. “Do we have issues can we improve? Yes.”
One of those is workforce retention, and making sure enough employees are skilled– and it starts with education.
“An alarming finding is that 80 percent of business leaders thought students graduating from public high schools are not well prepared for the workplace,” Lepak said.
Weber says Webco has its own training program, but she agrees education needs to improve.
Another common request was eliminating or reducing the state income tax– 78 percent of businesses want that to change.
“Leaders want to see those reductions come out of growth revenue and to be phased in over time,” Lepak said.
Businesses also want to see less regulation federally and locally, something Weber said Oklahoma is already doing well.
“Staying out of their way is one of the best things we can do most of the time,” Weber said.
Lepak says when it comes to business, these facts are powerful for making change.
“Our goal is to make Oklahoma the best place to do business,” said Lepak.
The chamber said these results help them talk to lawmakers when it comes to the most important issues when it comes to new legislation.
Click here to view the Business Leaders poll.