What did the mayor say at Stillwater's 2026 State of the City?

At the 2026 State of the City, Stillwater's mayor reported sales tax collections up 10% since July, nearly 2,000 construction workers on the Google data center, which has already produced $1.5 million in new tax revenue, 1,200 new housing units in the application process, a new airport terminal and high school open, and a plan to shift long-term infrastructure funding from sales tax to bonds.

The numbers

• Sales tax collections are up 10% year over year since the fiscal year started July 1, and use tax is up 31%. On the chart the city showed, Stillwater's sales tax growth since mid 2020 is outpacing Enid, Moore, Midwest City, and Owasso.
• The Google data center has already generated more than $1.5 million in new sales and use tax from construction spending since late 2024. Over the next couple of decades the mayor put the city's take at more than $100 million, with 90% earmarked for public infrastructure and maintenance. Nearly 2,000 workers are on the construction project right now.
• 1,200 new housing units are in the application process at Development Services, with hundreds more approved and waiting on construction.
• The new airport terminal is open. 31,000 square feet, three times the old one, two gates, a jet bridge, opened in August alongside the tenth anniversary of American Airlines service.
• The new high school is 188,000 square feet with a culinary lab, a commercial kitchen, fabrication space, and a gym that doubles as a storm shelter.
• Finance got its 44th consecutive certificate for excellence in financial reporting. Fewer than 5% of governmental units in the country get it.
• Dispatch was named Oklahoma 911 Center of the Year, partly for the response during the March 2025 wildfires.

What's being built

• Manufacturing. Kingspan is building an advanced manufacturing facility on formerly vacant property, more than 100 jobs, and part of its supply chain is co-locating with a planned $100 million facility on the same property. USA Rare Earth is operating a rare earth magnet plant in the building that used to print ESPN The Magazine and Rolling Stone, one of a handful producing those magnets anywhere in the Western Hemisphere.
• Meridian Technology Center is the training provider for the data center project and has bought land in Commerce Park for a 12,000 square foot training facility: forklift operation, industrial maintenance, welding, cable splicing.
• The YMCA. 56,000 square feet, two pools, an indoor walking track, a culinary facility. Officially winter 2027 to 2028. The Y's director told the room he expects it about a year out.
• Strickland Park is getting a $1.8 million makeover funded by the visitor sales tax: turf infields, LED lighting, real restrooms. Fewer rained-out tournaments, more visiting teams spending money here.
• Water. A new finished water pump station rated for 24 million gallons a day, expandable to 30, finishing commissioning by the end of the year. A seven mile, 36 inch pipeline from Lake McMurtry to the treatment plant. Tank rehabs at Manning, Washington, and Stallard, and the Yost tower is up for replacement.
• Streets. The $10 million pavement plan finished Monticello Drive, the intersection at Monticello and University, and downtown Main Street intersections with four-way stops and LED signs. Next year: Knoblock, 4th, and Lincoln. Highway 51 reconstruction is back on ODOT's schedule for fall 2029.
• Downtown. The old library at 6th and Husband becomes the Bookend Hotel. New restaurants Nixta and Chuck's. A Barnes and Noble. Block 34 has been open a year and is booked with markets, movies, and concerts. The convention center planned for Duck Street is not moving forward; bids have been coming back about 30% over estimate.
• Rails to trails switched engineering firms mid-planning. The state's money is in the bank and construction should start by the end of next year.

What's changing at City Hall

• A new outage management system launches at the end of the month: report electric and water outages by text, get updates on your phone, see a live outage map.
• A full rewrite of the land development code, which is nearly 20 years old. The stated goals are more housing options and new investment. If you build, develop, or lease, this is the one to watch.
• A new enterprise resource planning system for finance, HR, and utilities. The mayor was candid that projects like this are hard.
• Wayfinding and signage across town with Visit Stillwater, and a new site, playstillwater.com, that starts with the activity instead of the department.
• Design work has started on a municipal tennis facility, an outdoor aquatics facility, and a parks vision plan. A new animal welfare facility breaks ground soon, opening winter 2027 to 2028. A fifth fire station is "getting close."

Why Stillwater depends on sales tax, and what the mayor wants to change

Now that he can't run again, the mayor said the quiet part: almost all of the city's usable revenue is sales tax, which is volatile and which nobody at City Hall controls. Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and their suburbs fund long-term infrastructure with property tax bonds. Stillwater mostly doesn't. He'd like to see bonding capacity closer to 10 mills, starting with a bond for a pool or a fire station in the next few years, so that the transportation penny (about $15 million a year today) can eventually fund the things people actually ask for. Expect that conversation to keep coming up.

What it means if you run a business here

• Two thousand construction workers and 1,200 new housing units are customers who don't know you yet. The mayor's own line about retail applies to every trade: every dollar spent in Edmond or Tulsa is a vote for Edmond or Tulsa getting the next store. The same is true of who they hire.
• Sales tax up 10% means the room is busier, and the paperwork gets busier with it. That's the season to fix the office side before it eats the evenings.
• The Y, Strickland, the terminal, and the land code rewrite are all demand signals for contractors, landscapers, cleaners, and anyone who serves the businesses that serve them.
• Velvet Fudge got a shout-out from the podium as a brand new business that became the center of a loud local music scene. Small and new counts here. Show up.

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