Oregon needs a healthy business climate to encourage private-sector investment, create jobs and opportunities for Oregonians, and generate revenue for government services. By many measures, however, the state’s business climate is becoming increasingly less healthy:
- Oregon this year slipped seven places, to 28th, in CNBC’s annual America’s Top States for Business ranking. CNBC gave Oregon an “F” for business-friendliness, with only New York and New Jersey faring worse.
- From June 2023 to June 2024, Oregon ranked only 45th nationally in manufacturing growth, according to OBI’s 2024 report on the condition of Oregon’s manufacturing sector.
- Oregon’s effective state business tax burden soared 33% between 2019 and 2023, according to a 2024 report conducted for OBI by consulting firm EY. Oregon’s corporate tax ranking, at 49th, now tops only Delaware’s in the nonpartisan Tax Foundation’s 2025 State Tax Competitiveness Index.
- Oregon lost 6,000 residents between 2022 and 2023, according to a report released recently by the Common Sense Institute Oregon. This trend exacerbates the workforce challenges facing existing businesses and discourages further investment here.
“Other states are competing hard to attract businesses and the jobs and prosperity they create, and Oregon is falling further and further behind,” said OBI President and CEO Angela Wilhelms. “Oregon can no longer afford to stand on the sidelines as our state’s economic health erodes.”
The Oregon Competitiveness Agenda, released today, highlights three of the state’s biggest competitive problems and offers dozens of proposals to address them. The problems are:
- Oregon is an expensive state in which to live and operate a business.
- Oregon creates unnecessary obstacles to opportunity and success.
- Oregon’s political culture undervalues the state’s private sector.
The underlying causes of these problems include state and local tax policy; Oregon’s shortage of available land for residential and industrial development; an explosion of uncoordinated and complex regulations; and an unhelpful, and even antagonistic, culture echoed by many in legislative and executive policy-making roles.
To address these problems, the Oregon Competitiveness Agenda offers numerous ideas, each of which will help but none of which is a panacea. They include concrete steps to modernize agency rulemaking and permitting, from increasing transparency and consistency to adopting appropriate timelines and assessing economic impacts. They address workforce problems created by well-intended but overly rigid – and often confusing – policies. They also include both large and small changes to tax policy that would place Oregon in a better position to compete for business investment and recruit workers.
“The Oregon Competitiveness Agenda contains many proposals we hope the Legislature considers during next year’s session and beyond,” said Wilhelms. “But lawmaking alone isn’t enough. Many of the problems facing Oregon’s businesses involve state regulatory agencies. Creating a helpful, customer-oriented culture will also require the attention of agency leaders as well as the governor’s office.”
Go here to learn more about the Oregon Competitiveness Agenda.
By Erik Lukens, Communications Director for Oregon Business & Industry, a business advocacy organization with more than 1,600 members statewide. His guest commentary may or may not reflect the views of The Corvallis Advocate, or its management, staff, supporters and advertisers.
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