Nevada comes calling and hits the jackpot. Oregon…not so much.
On the Victoria Taft Show we’ve been keeping in touch with the folks in the economic development business in Nevada who took their cue from Chicago, the Port of Kalama, Montana and Idaho and decided to extend an invitation to Oregon business to move to a more business friendly state after passage of the job killing Measures 66 & 67. Measure 66 hits small businesses especially hard with a higher individual income tax rates which will target 70+% of small businesses in Oregon. Measure 67 introduced a “gross receipts” tax on all sales of C-corps. Gross is right. It’s a sales tax on stuff businesses sell but don’t necessarily make any money on. It’s, in short, a prescription for disaster. (As a side note, during yesterday’s Washington Senate Ways and Means debate introducing the income tax, one of the Democrat panel members admitted the B + O tax, Washington’s version of gross receipts tax, was disastrous for business.)
Kris Holt came to Oregon this week and had 12 appointments. As of Thursday, he had two commitments from companies to move to Nevada; one we knew about and one we didn’t (more on this in a minute), a VERY interested (and disaffected) Willamette Valley fruit packing company interested in making a move, and four companies committed to coming to Nevada for a look-see. He has his remaining appointments today.
He tells me he’s heartened by the response from Oregon businesses. For every PO’d business he’s met with he’s walked away with a handful of referrals. Holt tells me he’ll make a return trip to follow up on those soon. We’ll have him on the show again to find out his progress.
As for the companies actually moving at this point, a Medford telemarketing company plans to expand into Nevada where it will double its work force and eventually, through attrition, ween itself from Oregon. The owner currently employs 150 people who make, I’m told, $30-$35K/year. By the time he’s done there will be only a skeleton crew here. We’ve blogged about this before and spoken to the CEO of the company before on the show.
The company moving to Nevada that I didn’t know about is from Portland, has ten employees and is in the medical research business. Holt told me this company wishes to remain on the DL but he’ll let me know who they are when they’ve completed the arrangements on their new building. Holt says the owner tells him the business is about to take off due to the nature of the research they’re engaged in and didn’t want to put his company in a bad tax position.
When the clueless Ben Cannons and other Democrats of Oregon tell you they’ve never heard of any companies moving or laying off employees due to their disastrous tax policies, tell him to read this blog. Oh wait, they’ll deny it. Better yet–tell your friends to read this blog.
