The Oregon Biz Report - Business News from Oregon

Oregon vaping — I told you so

By Jabob Grier, Portland Writer
Cocktail consultant, magician, blogger.
Liquidity Preference Blog

In the recent The Oregonian, I look back at a column I wrote in 2008 and say, “I told you so.”

When the clock struck midnight on New Year’s Day 2009, Oregon ushered in its statewide smoking ban in bars and restaurants. I was at the Horse Brass Pub, one of Portland’s most notoriously smoky drinking dens, enjoying one last cigar with a bunch of other patrons who were none too happy about the new rules.

The ban, we were told, was necessary to protect employees and customers alike from secondhand smoke. Health researchers had conducted dozens of studies attempting to show that exposure endangered nonsmokers. Some of the results were medically implausible, but ban advocates at least made the effort of demonstrating actual harm to actual humans.

Chamber rejects Net Neutrality

U.S. Chamber of Commerce

U.S. Chamber of Commerce Senior Vice President for the Environment, Technology, & Regulatory Affairs Bill Kovacs today issued the following statement regarding the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) decision to regulate broadband under Title II of the “Communications Act”:

“The Chamber strongly opposes the FCC’s decision to impose burdensome, archaic Title II regulations on broadband. Today’s action by the FCC will plunge the industry into years of litigation and cause extreme regulatory and market uncertainty.

“Applying 80 year-old rules designed for telephone monopolies to broadband just doesn’t make sense. It upends nearly two decades of bipartisan support for regulating the Internet with a light-touch.

Government agency bill collector scams rises

By Oregon Better Business Bureau

BBB® is telling consumers to be alert to scammers claiming to be bill collectors for government agencies. These scams are coming in the form of phone calls in which the caller is demanding immediate payment over the phone and threatening arrest. They’ll make the request when you answer the phone or even leave a voice mail message. BBB has received numerous complaints lately about these calls.

There have also been reports of written notices with a doctored letterhead claiming it was sent from a government agency. The letter also threatens criminal arrest or legal action if the debts are not paid upon receipt of the letter.

Blazers close to top 10 most valued teams

Portland Trail Blazers Rank #12 on Forbes list of NBA team values 2015
By Oregon Small Business Association

The top 12 on the Forbes list of NBA team values 2015are:
#1. Los Angeles Lakers $2.6 billion
#2. New York Knicks $2.5 billion
#3. Chicago Bulls $2 billion
#4. Boston Celtics $1.7 billion
#5. Los Angeles Clippers $1.6 billion
#6. Brooklyn Nets $1.5 billion
#7. Golden State Warriors $1.3 billion
#8. Houston Rockets $1.25 billion
#9. Miami Heat $1.175 billion
#10. Dallas Mavericks $1.15 billion
#11. San Antonio Spurs $1 billion
#12. Portland Trail Blazers $940 million

Age Discrimination: Replace 30-year worker with College Grad?

By Bullard Law,
Portland law firm

Age Discrimination – Replacing A 30-Year Employee With A Recent College Grad

Here at The Bullard Edge we see it all. Folks send us amazing questions – some that highlight holes in the law and others that illustrate HR blind spots. This week’s (fictional) mailbag letter probably falls into that latter category. It is a letter from HR Manager Don T. Seat of the Top Box Company. Don wants to replace an age protected worker (a 30-year Top Box veteran) with a recent college graduate (who has never held a full time job). In the process of explaining this, Don makes stray comments that would have a plaintiff’s lawyer test driving a new Tesla (because of Don’s loose language we have changed all of the names, including Don’s). Here is the question.

Don’s Question:

State has $2.6 billion unfunded liability problem

Kathryn Hickok
Cascade Policy Institute

Cascade Policy Institute has released a new report showing that Oregon public employers have more than $2.6 billion in unfunded actuarially accrued liabilities associated with non-pension benefits promised to current and future retirees. Referred to as “Other Post-Employment Benefits,” or OPEB, these liabilities include various forms of deferred compensation.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board mandates that public employers clearly state financial obligations for OPEB in their comprehensive annual financial reports. However, employers are not required to set up trust funds to pay for these promises. As a result, the Cascade review of 125 financial reports of state, regional, and local governments shows that most employers have no money set aside and are paying for OPEB obligations out of annual operating revenues. This cannibalizes funds needed for actual services.

Paid Sick Leave from view of small business

By Oregon Small Business Association

On February 16, 2015, OSBA spokesman, Tom Maginnis, testified before the Joint Senate & House Business & Labor committee on HB 2005 which mandates nearly 50 hours of paid sick leave. Maginnis gave an incredible True-Life Testimony on his own small business as listed below.

When I was working for Mark Hatfield, constituents would tell me, “You don’t understand what it’s like to run a business and make a payroll.” They were right. Now, as the former owner of three Chuck E. Cheese’s restaurants, I do. For nearly twenty years I carried a tremendous sense of responsibility for the lives of the 1,500 young people I employed. When I bought my Portland store in 1997, I employed about 74 employees. After expenses, I cash-flowed about $750,000 per year; money which I used to replace worn assets, upgrade my store, replace old games and machines, repay my commercial loans and finally, support my family.

Feds target web price discrimination

By Michael Hendrix,
U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation

The Internet is perhaps the greatest modern ally of everyday people. Shoppers in particular have more options available to them than ever before. Yet are shoppers’ data being used against them when they’re not looking? That is a question the President’s Council of Economic Advisers tackled with its new report, Big Data and Differential Pricing. In a word, the answer is “no.”

Differential pricing simply means charging different customers different prices for the same product. Economists call this “price discrimination,” a rather unfortunate term for an ancient and common practice. Movie theaters, for instance, charge children a lower price for the same movie. The upshot is that seeing Frozen becomes more affordable for families. The moviegoer market is expanded and more siblings are forced to “Let It Go.”

Oregon’s labor market & wages

By Josh Lehner
Oregon Office of Economic Analysis Blog

As our office has discussed over the past year (HERE and HERE, e.g.), the expected pattern for the economy would be first more jobs, then higher wages due to a tighter labor market and then more individuals in the labor force looking for these more plentiful and/or better paying jobs. As the overall economy continues to improve and jobs are at an all-time high, more and more focus is being paid to wage growth. In particular, the Federal Reserve is closely monitoring wages and inflation to determine the underlying strength in the economy so they can begin raising interest rates (aka, normalizing monetary policy.) Well, the good news for Oregon is that these expected patterns of growth or labor market dynamics are emerging locally and may already be here.