The Buy Broken Arrow holiday shopping campaign is underway, but officials want the local focus to last year-round.
The chamber of commerce has launched "What’s your BA," and President Wes Smithwick asked people to use that as a social media hashtag — #whatsyourba — when they do something fun in Broken Arrow.
"All of that will propel our community through additional revenue to our businesses, which is most important," Smithwick said. "That trickles down to additional revenue for our city to keep our roads in good condition, keep our traffic lights going, keep police officers and firefighters on the job."
City Manager Michael Spurgeon said buying local is critical for funding city services. For example, it costs the city about $120,000 for one police officer’s salary, car and equipment.
"For us to be able to pay for that police officer, folks that live here and come here have to spend over $4 million," Spurgeon said.
Five years ago, the now-bustling Rose District brought in just $19,000 in sales tax revenue.
"We're now collecting over $350,000 a year in sales tax, and that is a tremendous reinvestment of the public sector and the private sector to provide the businesses opportunities to be here and be successful, and then the folks to come to shop," Spurgeon said.
