It’s been a mantra of business leaders and Republicans for years: Oregon’s tax and regulation landscape has made the state increasingly unappetizing for businesses.
As she prepares a run for reelection, Gov. Tina Kotek said Tuesday she agrees.
With growing concerns over major state budget deficits, stagnating population growth, rising unemployment and new data showing Oregon businesses are looking elsewhere as they expand, Kotek announced her intention to dig the Beaver State’s business cred out of the basement.
Flanked by business leaders and lawmakers at a Tualatin semiconductor company, the governor unveiled a set of strategies she said would help create a stronger overall economy and rocket the state up national rankings.
“Oregon is on the brink of a decade of extraordinary economic growth and greater affordability—if we put the right partnerships, policies, and strategies in place now,” Kotek wrote in a document unveiling what she is calling Oregon’s Prosperity Roadmap.
There is plenty of cause for concern. Oregon’s unemployment rate has risen faster recently than other states, and the state is on track to lose more jobs than it gains this year — typically a sign of a recession, though economists aren’t currently predicting one. As the Portland metro region continues to struggle, Oregon’s economy is growing more slowly than the national average.
“Oregon is falling behind the rest of the nation, and Democrats have no plan to turn it around,” then-Senate Minority Leader Daniel Bonham said in August, after a new analysis showing Oregon had lost 25,000 jobs over the last year. Some of the state’s largest employers, including Intel and Nike, have seen repeated rounds of layoffs recently.
“Failed housing policy, hostile business regulations, struggling schools, and rising crime have all driven families and employers away,” Bonham, who has since been tapped for a role at the U.S. Department of Labor, said at the time. “Tina Kotek and the Democrat supermajority have done this, one policy decision at a time.”
A recent CNBC study fueled alarm over Oregon’s business bonafides. The business and finance news outlet ranked the state 39th in the country for its overall business environment — a ranking that takes into account factors like a state’s economy (Oregon placed 41st), cost of doing business (43rd), business friendliness (47th) and workforce (23rd).
Kotek said Tuesday it’s her goal to get Oregon into the top 10 overall in the CNBC list — and to get the state’s economy once again growing faster than the national average. Her plan relies on streamlining business regulations, better training Oregon workers and sharpening tools like targeted tax breaks some say have become an afterthought.
“Today I am here to lift up and emphasize that Oregon is open for business,” Kotek said. “We are ready to roll up our sleeves to support business and create more good paying jobs for Oregonians.”
The governor announced Tuesday she would hire a new chief prosperity officer, to be advised by a newly convened Governor’s Prosperity Council that can help work out the specifics of her plan. The leaders of that council will be Port of Portland Executive Director Curtis Robinhold and Renee James, a former Intel executive who founded the company Ampere Computing. (Editor’s note: Robinhold is vice chair of OPB’s board of directors.)
Not coincidentally, such a prosperity council was among recommendations made in a report released Monday by the Oregon Business Plan, which argued for easing the state’s taxation system, land use laws and business regulations to boost competitiveness.
Kotek has been a persistent force in Oregon politics for more than a decade. The former longest-serving House Speaker in state history also said Tuesday she would push a bill in next year’s short legislative session that would “fast track” major development projects. She pointed to similar efforts in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Maryland.
Other steps listed in Kotek’s proposal include:
- Considering “targeted tax changes” to spur job growth. Those would be considered in 2027, Kotek said, the same time lawmakers are expecting to grapple with billions of dollars in reduced federal funding.
- Updating tax incentive programs the state uses to incentivize businesses to invest in Oregon.
- Directing Business Oregon, the state’s economic development arm, to “complete a state economic development strategy.”
- Conducting better outreach with large employers to “stay ahead of emerging challenges and opportunities.”
- Direct state agencies to propose ways to streamline permitting.
Kotek’s proposal comes as business leaders and politicians get ready to meet next week at the Oregon Business Plan Leadership Summit. The annual event, organized by the Oregon Business Council, often helps chart Oregon’s public policy direction.
But the governor brought some weighty voices as co-signers in unveiling her effort Tuesday.
Among those to speak at the announcement were Columbia Sportswear president and CEO Tim Boyle and Sesha Varadarajan, a senior vice president at semiconductor industry firm Lam Research, which hosted the event. Both men said Oregon has a lot to offer, but added it also must do more to help business grow.
“Some of my professional advisors have recommended that I relocate to another state instead,” Boyle said. “I’m here today because we have the opportunity for Oregon to be the destination for prosperity.”
Noting that Lam recently expanded its Tualatin campus, Varadarajan said the company has “much bigger plans ahead and that’s why we welcome governor’s Prosperity Roadmap... This roadmap reflects exactly why we plan to continue growing our business here.”
The drumbeat has been growing all year for Oregon elected leaders to take an active role in making the state more welcoming to new and existing business ventures.
In January, a report from the University of Oregon showed that other states are actively courting Oregon businesses away by offering tax incentives, land deals, cash grants and other tools — and that many are answering that call. As a result, the study predicts the state has lost out on billions of dollars of investment that might otherwise land in Oregon.
“It focuses on business climate and business friendliness and just how battered businesses are feeling in the state,” said Bob Parker, director of strategy and technical solutions at the university’s Institute for Policy Research and Engagement, which conducted the study. “They’re not feeling any love. They feel like the Legislature has treated them like a piggy bank.”
During this year’s legislative session, lawmakers heard a presentation that Portland is at risk of entering a “doom loop,” where the departure of high-income residents reduces local tax revenues, prompting worse public services that then lead more people to leave.
And this summer, John Tapogna, a researcher at economics firm ECOnorthwest, began making the case that Oregon will need to change direction if it hopes to maintain even modest economic growth. (Editor’s note: Tapogna is chair of OPB’s board of directors.) That argument has some similarities to those presented in “Abundance,” a 2025 book from writers Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson that casts well-meaning regulations as an unnecessary hindrance to progress.
Tapogna’s research will be a major focus of next week’s business summit. It will also almost certainly feature heavily in next year’s governor’s race.
Kotek has yet to formally announce reelection plans, but is widely expected to do so soon. She may face a rematch with state Sen. Christine Drazan, R-Canby, who has repeatedly hammered Kotek on her economic record.
Drazan wasted no time doing so again on Tuesday.
“Tina Kotek should have been the ‘Chief Prosperity Officer’ for Oregon this entire time,” Drazan said in a statement. “She has failed us.”
The governor is not the only top Democrat who is making better economic stewardship a priority. As lawmakers prepare to slash state services in coming years — largely due to federal funding reductions passed by Congressional Republicans earlier this year — legislative leaders have said repeatedly they would try to fill budget holes by boosting Oregon business.
“Job creation can lead to greater funding to support state programs,” state Rep. Tawna Sanchez, D-Portland, and state Sen. Kate Lieber, D-Portland, the Legislature’s top budget writers, wrote in a recent op-ed. “Conversations about spurring economic growth and closing tax loopholes are ongoing across government, and the outcome of those talks will have a dramatic impact on our ability to provide state services in the coming years.”
