Oregon No. 6 for business

Oregon, in spite of raising income taxes on the rich, keeps getting noticed for being a good place for business. Last month, Bend ranked No. 7 in Forbes magazine for being one of the best small places to do business.

Now, Forbes ranks Oregon No. 6 out of the 50 states for being great for business and careers, moving up four spots after passing our tax hikes. Our neighbor to the north, which has no state income tax, ranks No. 5.

Check out this story, which contains a brilliant quote from a spokesman for Our Oregon, a non-profit group promoting "economic and tax fairness," who said that corporate interests always bad-mouth Oregon's business climate.

"They have an interest in creating and in spreading this false and toxic rumor that Oregon is bad for business," said Scott Moore. "Because by doing that they then lobby the legislature for even lower taxes on business."

So true.

That is why Chris Dudley has a chance at being Oregon's first Republican governor in 25 years. His sole platform is too cut capital gains taxes on the rich, which in turn will make life more miserable for the desperate and the destitute in this state.

Oh, and Dudley wants to privatize the sale of hard liquor. For some reason, Republicans have long considered the state control of hard liquor sales as one of the greatest attacks on our freedoms.

The freedom to be alcoholics.

Dudley and other Republicans running for office believe that government can't create jobs but say they are running for office to create jobs.

Huh?

As I've noted before in other blog posts, Oregon's economy has always been weak because we have few direct connections to the federal trough aside from county timber payments which are always on the chopping block. We have no military bases and we have few defense contractors.

And yet, as the article points out, businesses are moving to, or expanding in, Oregon.

Intel announced this week that it'll expand its operations in Hillsboro, a Portland suburb, to the tune of $3.5 billion.

Vestas, the wind energy giant, is moving its world headquarters to Portland.

Hi-Tec shoes is moving its U.S. headquarters from California to Portland.

Oregon has always bent over for business and that is another reason why the economy has never been strong in this state. When business runs the government, they just raid the treasury and then turn around and say government is bloated and must lose weight. Huh?

Fat cats get really fat at government, and taxpayers', expense.