Remote Workers Can Get a Cushy Apartment, Free Office Space, and $10K If They Move To Tulsa (nextgov.com)

Tulsa, Oklahoma is offering full-time remote workers in the U.S. free office space, a subsidized furnished apartment, and $10,000 cash if you move there and stay for at least one year. The city wants to attract so-called "digital nomads," who would, presumably, start paying taxes, launch businesses, and otherwise contribute to the economy of wherever they're drawn to. Nextgov reports: Tulsa Remote is one of several revitalization projects in the region funded by the George Kaiser Family Foundation. The Tulsa-based philanthropic organization was started by George B. Kaiser, an oil and banking billionaire who has signed on to Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates' "Giving Pledge," whose wealthy signees promise to give away at least half their fortunes to charity.

The organization has budgeted for 20 new remote workers in the program's first year, says Ken Levit, GKFF's executive director. Applicants must be at least 18, eligible to work in the U.S., already working full-time for an employer based outside the boundaries of Tulsa County, and prepared to move to Tulsa within six months. Applications opened Tuesday at the website TulsaRemote.com; the city hopes to settle the first new residents within the next three months, Levit said.

Comments

lol

[Type44Q]

Tulsa's clearly a great town. Just kidding; the only part of it that didn't completely suck was within the four walls of Wild Oats Supermarket (it was lthe closest you could get to leaving that shitty state)... and Whole Foods put a stop to that a while back.

Not the stupidest idea

[Qbertino]

Sound like a smart and potentially effective programm to Kickstart local economy to me. If digital natives are what you're looking for this could work way better than throwing obscene amounts of tax cuts in Amazons direction.

Someone has been thinking outside of the box. That alone makes this program and it's proposal intriguing.

If I were an USian, I'd check this out.

Re:Not the stupidest idea

[elrous0]

It's just a PR stunt. If you read the article, you'll see they only have 20 "slots" available for this program. That's not a serious effort, it's just a PR stunt designed to grab headlines (and it seems to have worked). If this were a serious program, they would be budgeting for hundreds, or even thousands, of workers to participate, not 20.

Re:Not the stupidest idea

[Ubi_NL]

You may want to have a look at the 2016 elect results for Tusla before you pack your bags

Re: Not the stupidest idea

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe there is a plan for more people and they are just starting small. Ya know, testing it out...instesd of investing in hundreds of thousands of dollars without knowing the type of interest it has.

Remind me not to hire you for any sort of planning and rollout strategies. Thanks!

Re:Not the stupidest idea

[cayenne8]

If I were an USian, I'd check this out.

Just to help you out since you're foreign to our lands....we refer to ourselves as "Americans".

We don't know WTF a "usian" is or means.

Hope that helps.

;)

Re:Not the stupidest idea

[geoscodin]

Not all tech workers lean left. Where I work here in South Carolina, most (not all) of our programmers and systems staff lean not only right, but far right. But then again so does much of the state.

But Tulsa...

[QuadEddie]

Having lived in OK for a few years, more parts are shit-holish than not. There are small pockets of nice areas, but I'm pretty sure Tulsa isn't one of them. This seems like their gasping for new blood.

Feds should set the example

[MikeRT]

Feds could easily snap their fingers and send several thousand new knowledge worker jobs to Tulsa within the next 1-3 years just by giving marching orders to a few agencies to move out of metro DC and set up jobs in that general region. It would also save the taxpayers probably on the order of 25-40% on contract costs.

I have never understood why the other 48 states, particularly California with all of its collective bitching about paying more than it receives, has allowed MD and VA to grow fat on all of these jobs. Metro DC could easily be forcibly disassembled by the other 48 states legislatively if they chose to cooperate.

Re:lol

[hcs_$reboot]

Chandler: Y'know how people say that Tulsa is the Paris of Oklahoma?
Monica: What? Who says that?
Chandler: People who've never been to Paris.
The One where Emma cries / 12:50

You've obviously never worked with the Feds

[PeeAitchPee]

The senior people who actually run the gov't on a day-to-day basis live in the metro DC area and that's not changing. Tribal knowledge is key. Two years ago I saw a senior purchasing contract officer try to retire and a large part of an entire agency was unable to buy anything for over six months. Out of desperation, they talked her into coming back part-time for awhile, but she eventually retired for good and shut the thing down for another year, forcing them to send out a ton of RFPs at the very end of fiscal just so they didn't lose funding. Many other parts still require submission of paper invoices and other documentation. Sure they've made progress, but the US Gov't is the world's biggest employer, and customer, and they're based in Washington DC. The investment in infrastructure alone to support even one decent sized Federal agency is staggering. You're living in a fantasy world if you think that's ever changing. On the contrary, as shown by Amazon and others, DC just continues to become more important.

Re:You've obviously never worked with the Feds

[gtall]

As an example, the VA's computer systems just crumpled under their load and a lot of VA benefits recipients are now even further behind the eight ball. This is what happens when the pols decide that starving an agency so they can piss off the money on their home districts comes back to bite.

Worse, the last tax giveaway was sold as "paying for itself" because of all that wonderful investment it was going to allow companies to do. The only problem was that companies aren't going to invest if they do not see any rise in demand, and the tax giveaway did nothing for demand. So after the short run sugar high, companies are back to minimal investing. And the deficits will now balloon to over $1 Trillion/Year. Needless to say, that is unsustainable.

All it will take is one recession and the U.S. will be in a world of hurt. That last one took out a good part of the global economy. The next one will have Congress unable to increase spending to increase economic activity. Because of the debt, the Fed. won't be able to lower interest rates since they must convince people and countries to buy U.S. debt by offering an attractive interest rate. After the Great Recession, they didn't have to do that because the rest of the world was also in recession. Now, things will be different.

Things you should know about Oklahoma:

[Gravis Zero]

There are few places that I warn people about and Oklahoma is one of them.

First off, about half of Oklahoma's power is generated from burning coal which something they take pride in. However you feel about coal energy, there are health consequences for living downwind from a coal plant. If you are still on board then perhaps you will be interested to know that Oklahoma is deeply Republican, very pro-gun, anti-abortion and anti-science.

However you feel about these topics, I just think people should know what they are signing up for before the find themselves in a situation they may be unhappy with.

Re:Things you should know about Oklahoma:

[Greyfox]

Apparently they have one of the worst educational systems in the USA too. Alabama, Mississippi and Kentucky might be keeping them from dead last. So if you have kids, you won't be doing them any favors by moving there. Unless you live in Alabama, Mississippi or Kentucky.

Re:Oklahoma?

[aaarrrgggh]

While it wouldn’t be for me— I need the ocean close— many people can do a lot to change their lives in a year in this kind of scenario. Save money, take risks, etc. Even if the “nomads” don’t stay, there is a chance to impact some locals and potentially set forth positive change.

One thing that did surprise me though, prompted by this story, is just how many >$1MM homes for sale there are in Tulsa.

Reasons not to do this

[jjshoe]

Before you rush off to Tulsa for $10k and a little housing subsidy:

https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/...

DEATH TO TULSA

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

I mean, Oral Roberts, the Klan and shit.

Everyone dumping on OK

[erp_consultant]

The general consensus here is that Oklahoma is a shit hole and no way I'd ever live there...etc. I have been to Oklahoma many times and it's not nearly as bad as some here are casting it. Tulsa does have some bad neighborhoods, like nearly every city in the USA, but it isn't terrible. Given the choice I would choose Oklahoma City over Tulsa because there seemed to be more to do. But we did manage to find some very good restaurants there are some nice neighborhoods too.

On the plus side, if you are young and starting out you can buy a really nice house for surprisingly little money. Think about that while you are scratching a rent check for 4K a month for some closet sized apartment in Silicon Valley. Traffic is not bad either, a nice change from a lot of large US cities. Weather? It's not terrible as long as you can avoid the tornado paths, which always seem to strike the same places year after year.

Personally, I am fully settled and not looking to move anywhere but if I were young and mobile I would give this some thought. After all, it is only a 1 year commitment.

State income tax is the problem

[nasor]

I am a full-time remote worker who can live anywhere, so this is interesting...but the problem is Tulsa's 4.87% combined state and city income tax. I currently live in a state with no income tax, and paying that extra tax would more than wipe out the $10k. If OK wants to make itself attractive to high-earning teleworkers who can live anywhere, maybe rethinking the state income tax would be a good place to start.

That's not how it works

[aepervius]

Your method is the best way to run into budget problem or useless empty places. You do a first study, then an initial program with very few places like their 20. THEN if a lot of people start to want to participate, you increase the programs budget and size of available places.

Ahhh Oklahoma.

[meglon]

I put in my time stationed at Fort Sill. The common saying was: Fort Sill isn't Hell, but you can see Hell from the front gate.... and they weren't shitting.