06/10/2026
City of Blanchard officials discuss the sales tax issue
Blanchard City Manager Roger Kolman and Blanchard Mayor Michael Scalf sat down with the Blanchard News this week to offer perspective on current sales tax numbers for the city. The wide-ranging discussion featured an overview of what the current numbers mean for this year’s budget. The two city leaders also noted ongoing efforts to improve retail options in Blanchard and what that growth would mean for city residents.
“In a recent issue [of the Blanchard News], there was an article that talked about our sales tax numbers,” Kolman stated. “It was centered around a point in time – April, I believe -and if you read that article, you would have read something to the effect that we were up 10% in sales tax revenue. However, while numbers from a single month where totals may be up over that same month in the prior year can be an indicator, those numbers don’t tell the whole story. Year to date, Blanchard sales tax collections are actually down 6% from what they were the prior year and down 3% from the year prior to that. So we really wanted to show the sales tax collections and the historical data on those numbers with a little more contextual clarity.
“By comparison, we chose cities that are next to us, or cities across the state that are near our size. Regionally, Tuttle and Newcastle are our closest competitors. The numbers show April of 2026, where Blanchard collected $422,980.96 for the 5-penny tax that we have. Tuttle collected $295, 730.82 for the 4.5 penny-tax that they have. Total tax per capita is also an important number because it tells you how many of your citizens are shopping in the stores that you have locally as opposed to shopping outside the city. The total taxable sales tax is based upon the rate and sales taxes collected. What’s important is that Tuttle’s taxable sales for that month are $6.5 million and ours are $8.4 million, while Skiatook’s taxable sales were almost $12 million dollars. The difference between these 3 communities is a major multi-line retailer like Wal Mart being located in Skiatook. That multi-line retailer generates a significant amount of revenue that towns without one do not generate.
“The ‘Monthly Sales Tax Collections’ chart represents the last 4 years of sales tax collection in Blanchard. There are always ups and downs in sales tax – you’ll see a bump in the holiday season and a bump in the go-back-to-school season. But the chart shows that those numbers, save a couple of anomalous spikes that are not expected to reoccur, really have not changed. So that is really our burden and really is why we are working so hard on retail recruitment. If we are going to provide the services that our citizens deserve, we need to grow the tax base.”
“Any multi-line retailer would be very helpful for our community. Mayor Scalf and Blanchard Economic Trust Authority Chairman Terry Erhardt were just at the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) in San Antonio, Texas, and were having those conversations with retail representatives. I can also tell you that our retail recruitment company is working very hard to bring more retail into our community. I have personally toured with developers who are looking very heavily at locations in Blanchard. So we know that large retail opportunities for our city are not out of the realm of possibility, but it also has to be understood that it takes a period of time to get these types of things done. We do want our citizens to know that we are working diligently in these areas, working to bring the kind of retail shopping that our citizens want and that they are currently going outside the city to get. The important point to remember is that the more shopping our citizens can do in the community, the better the services that the city can offer to them. The city is working diligently to expand the retail operations that are here, not just to support the citizens, but also to support that existing retail and keep it growing and prospering.
“The ‘Monthly Use Tax’ chart shows numbers that are historically related to construction. Then about 10 years ago Amazon signed the compact and all the other retailers signed on and they started to collect the sales tax for items purchased online but actually delivered inside of the city. So when that happened, it changed the world a bit. This chart shows the holiday season as the giant hump in the middle. We always encourage our local citizens to shop in Blanchard. When you shop outside of the city, you’re paying for that other city’s firefighters and police officers and streets and all the other things funded by sales taxes. When our citizens shop in Blanchard, they are funding all of those same things here that are in direct service to our community.
“A penny sales tax in Blanchard today generates right around $1.3 million of revenue every year. Because our revenue stream – the sales tax base – hasn’t grown very much, that means that in post-covid era and throughout the recent inflationary periods, that $1.3 million doesn’t buy what it used to. So it becomes more and more difficult every year to maintain a balanced budget that maintains the services that our citizens deserve.
“The council has taken no official action on renewing the 1-cent sales tax set to expire in 2027, but I would expect that an effort to renew that tax is something that we will see happen in the near future. That particular sales tax pays for a lot of the capital projects that we have completed over the last 20 years. Those things include expansion of the water system and construction of the Pioneer Library building.”
Mayor Scalf also noted current budget numbers and offered some reasons that retail growth in Blanchard has lagged behind population or ‘rooftop’ growth.
“We had a budget meeting two nights ago and the budget looks very bleak right now,” Scalf said. “A balanced budget is required by state law and we have to approve the new budget in June. We are in such a dire situation in Oklahoma because the state prohibits us from receiving property tax revenue. Oklahoma is the only state that has that restriction. So operating on sales tax revenues makes it very difficult to budget because those numbers are so volatile.
“We are doing our research and, with the aid of a citizen’s ad-hoc committee, we are looking at the 1-cent sales tax plan that is set to expire in 2027, looking at what can be done and why we need to extend it. When we get those facts together, we will publish that information and get that out there for our citizens.
“Our city has been exploding in ‘rooftops’, but we have not been exploding in retail. City leadership 20 years ago was not as pro-growth as we are now, especially from a commercial standpoint. As we first started talking to people at the ICSC conferences, we noticed that they would tell us that they had always heard that Blanchard didn’t really want new businesses. It took us a bit of time, but I think we have successfully dispelled that image. Our trip to San Antonio saw extremely positive results. There is a lot of interest from new retail, but these things take time. For instance, it took 9 years to get Braums to come in here to Blanchard. Developers’ due-diligence time is not always on our time frame, unfortunately. It would have been a lot easier draw 20 years ago before the ‘Amazon factor’ has such an impact on the retail industry. Once that happened, it changed the whole concept of what brick-and-mortar companies look for and where they want to put that investment in. It is so much harder now.”
The city manager also noted the retail lag but expressed optimism for future business growth in the city. Kolman also noted once more that the city is attacking retail growth proactively and also noted progress on water supply issues.
“We do have a retail lag. The availability of land that is zoned properly and has all the necessary infrastructure has presented challenged to growth. However, we are working to make sure that there is land available when those retailers come looking. Typically, a land developer will come in and buy, say, 20 acres of land and do all the infrastructure and the building, then enter into lease agreements with retailers. We are working with a couple of different developers to do exactly that, to come in and put their flag in our community and build a large retail center, rather than just smaller one-off retail sites.
“Our residential growth continues to be promising. Rooftops drive retail – you have to enough people somewhere with enough disposable income to draw the retailers. We have that going for us. And additional residential will also follow retail. The new Bridgesong golf course will have 600-some houses on it and additional projects will come out of the ground as a result of that project. I believe the main focus of the group constructing the golf course right now is getting the course itself ready to open. They are targeting next summer for that opening. Having that asset open and operating will generate even more interest in someone acquiring property and putting a whole bunch of retail on it. That all remains very promising and I believe factors are pointing to positive things for Blanchard in the future..
“One of the things that is always a hot topic is water and the city has worked its way to having additional storage inside the community with the Four Lakes tower. And now the Grrady-McClain County (GMC) Trust has closed on property to build another million-gallon storage facility to the north, so that is all working to fill the gap that was holding back Blanchard -and Tuttle to some extent- from meeting our growth potential. A groundbreaking on the new storage should be taking place September-ish and 50% more water volume for city residents will come through that line when it is completed.”
