Doing business in Oregon

As bad as Washington state is for running a business, Oregon makes us look like Texas. From The Oregonian:

Stimson Lumber CEO: Oregon on "skull and crossbones list"
Andrew Miller, the president of Portland-based Stimson Lumber Company, gave me an earful the other day when I called to ask why the firm is donating so much money - $285,000 and counting - to Republican Chris Dudley's campaign for governor.

I barely got a question in as Miller went on for 20 minutes explaining how upset he was at Oregon's business climate and how that has led the company to add more jobs to operations in Idaho while recently laying off 65 people at its mill near Forest Grove.

Miller's soliloquy is certainly in keeping with a lot of what I've heard from various members of the business community and their lobbyists, particularly following the big fight over the business and high-income-earner tax hikes approved by the Legislature last year and subsequently ratified by voters.

But it was intriguing how much of Miller's passion was directed not at specifics but just a general sense that business is not appreciated by Oregon's leadership - and that another tax hike like Measures 66 and 67 could be coming at any time.

As Miller talked, it became clear to me how much Dudley is channeling the frustrations of the business community as he campaigns. When it comes to many business folks, Dudley clearly is expressing what they feel.

It will be nice when the State and Federal governments realize that cutting spending and cutting taxes are the way to increase both small businesses (jobs and economy) and tax revenue (funds coming in to the Government). High taxation simply cuts business growth and with minimal growth, there is no urgency to hire and revenues are lower... Our flirtation with Keynesian economics needs to stop.