Tulsa Looking To Incentives Due To Losing Sales Tax To Suburbs

By Emory Bryan, The News On 6

TULSA, OK -- The decision of where to shop has a big impact on city governments, which depend on sales taxes.

Every month, the city of Tulsa gets more bad news about sales tax and it has the city council wondering if shoppers need an incentive to shop in Tulsa.

Janet Beil believes she could help Tulsa increase sales tax income for government, because she has seen it happen in Sapulpa.

The city is on the 11th season of the Jingle Bell Sweepstakes.

"I mean you've got to shop for Christmas anyway, so you might as well have a chance to win some money," said Janet Beil of Sapulpa Main Street.

113 downtown businesses give out tickets to shoppers for a drawing to win cash.

"We want people to stay in Sapulpa and shop here, we have a lot of people who come in from out of town to shop because of the sweepstakes and we love that," Beil said.

In Sapulpa, they are sure the Jingle Bells sweepstakes is bringing customers in but they're also certain that new shopping centers opening up in other bedroom communities is pulling customers away.

Owasso started a trolley service to help shoppers get around, another way to encourage people to buy from local stores.

The success other communities have with "shop at home" promotions has the Tulsa city council wondering if it could work on a larger scale.

"The money the citizens spend in Tulsa really does help pay for police and fire and roads," Bill Christiansen, Tulsa City Councilor said.

The council wants Tulsans to know where they buy makes a difference.

In Sapulpa it has made a difference, where they've tracked a steady increase in sales tax and Beil says it could work in Tulsa.

"Certainly something like this could work for them, if the merchants were willing to do and they felt like it was a positive thing, it's been a positive thing for Sapulpa," Beil said.

Other cities with Christmas sweepstakes include Claremore, Broken Arrow, Bartlesville, Coweta and

The Tulsa Chamber of Commerce has an organized campaign to encourage businesses to buy local, but no contest during the holiday shopping season.

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