The Oregon Biz Report - Business News from Oregon

New Withholding Tables Now Available on IRS.gov; Most Workers Will See Bigger Paychecks this Spring

IRS? The Internal Revenue Service today released new withholding tables that will result in more take-home pay this spring for millions of American workers.  The new tables incorporate the new Making Work Pay credit, one of the key tax provisions included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 that became law earlier this week.

By Liz Overson
Oregon Entrepreneurs Network

Robin Jones, CEO and Co-founder of 88 Inc. of Portland, is working hard to bring a product to market that she feels will transform mobile phone usage for women. In sum, she and her partner are designing headpieces that are ergonomically and aesthetically targeting the female consumer.  Women buy 71% of mobile phones and 51% of consumer electronics today. And Robin’s soon-to-be ready product will zero in on that demographic with their line of fine jewelry that provides all the functionality of today’s headsets, yet in a more attractive and even practical way.

By Ken Niezgoda,
Biz Reporter

The “Recession-Proof” label is typically attached to the health care industry, yet the industry that experienced Oregon’s largest percentage growth in employment last year was Food Manufacturing. With 1800 new jobs added in the past year, Food Manufacturing increased its workforce 7.9 percent, according to current employment statistics released by the Oregon Employment Department.

Manufacturing employment as a whole dropped 8.3 percent, according to the report. Food Manufacturing saw its largest employment growth in the Food and Vegetable Preserving and Specialty sub-category. The increase is consistent with the philosophy that consumers are putting their dollars into basic products and services.

By Dr. Eric Fruits,
Econinternational

Tomorrow morning, Oregon’s House Revenue Committee will be taking public input on a bill to limit the state’s business energy tax credits.  Oregon’s Business Energy Tax Credit program (BETC) gives a tax credit to businesses, nonprofits, and other organizations to spend money on projects intended to reduce energy consumption. If a business has no tax obligation, it can sell its credits to another business to help reduce the buyer’s tax obligation. As a result, businesses, governments, and nonprofits have an incentive to label standard business practices as energy conservation projects. For example, an employer that puts in bike racks or subsidizes its employees’ bus passes can qualify for the credit.

By J.L. Wilson
Associated Oregon Industries,

A package of unemployment bills introduced in the past week may substantially add to employers’ tax liability concerns, according to numbers furnished by the Oregon Employment Department.  SB 461, SB 462, and SB 463 were introduced and assigned to the Senate Commerce & Workforce Development Committee, where SB 462 and SB 463 received their initial public hearing this week.

By Bill Conerly,
Businomics, Conerly Consulting LLC

I’ve lowered my economic forecast for 2009 based on inventory data which I’ve recently studied.  Here’s the long-run picture:

Bullard, Smith, Jernstedt & Wilson Law Firm
EAlert 2/16/09

STIMULUS BILL MANDATES COBRA CHANGES

Tomorrow President Obama is expected to sign the much-debated stimulus bill (officially the “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009”) that the House and Senate passed last week. The ARRA changes certain rules relating to continuation coverage from employer-sponsored health plans. The changes apply to public employers’ plans as well as private-sector employers’ plans, and one of the changes even applies to employers who are not subject to the federal COBRA rules.

By Oregon Society of CPAs,

In the 1990s Oregon adopted legislation to provide that the Oregon definition of taxable income would automatically tie to changes in the federal definition of taxable income.  As the 2009 Legislature convened, they became very concerned about the newest stimulus package that was moving through Congress, and what it might mean in terms of lost tax dollars to the state of Oregon.  Democrats in both the House and Senate quickly moved a bill through the Legislature to change the connection date to the Internal Revenue Code to December 31, 2008.  Therefore, although all changes through the end of 2008 were automatically picked up, Oregon’s definition of taxable income will no longer be automatically tied to the Internal Revenue Code.

By Chris Benson
Owner of GeeksAKnockin’ LLC,

Imagine if you came in to your office tomorrow and found that your laptop/desktop/server had been stolen.  How long could your business continue to operate without access to the information on those computers?  How much would it cost to recreate all the company records, customer lists, documents, emails, and financial data, and would it even be possible?  Thankfully, there are easy and comparatively inexpensive ways to quickly recover from disaster.

Hewlett-Packard recently announced a 13% drop in quarterly profit.  Here is where they are decline and where they are rising;

PCs -19%
Printer -19%
Servers -18%
Software -7%
Services +116% *

* = Service increase due to acquisition

The Oregon Brewers Guild has been spreading the alert on  House Bill 2461 which increases the barrel tax on beer by more than 1,800% (from $2.60to $49.61).  This could add to the cost of a six-pack as much as $2.   The Guild has been highlighting these three viewer polls by Oregon TV stations as evidence that momentum is on their side.

On the subject of supporting a beer tax to support drug/alcohol programs…

Read the full article and discuss it » | (4 comments)

By Ken Neizgoda, Biz Reporter

Health care jobs in Oregon are on the rise as other industries experience growing unemployment, according to a news report issued in January from the state of Oregon.  Health services, which is grouped together with educational services in the report, added jobs in Oregon in December. Health care and social assistance is Oregon’s third largest small business industry in terms of employment, according the report, Small Business Profiles for the States and Territories, released last month by the SBA.

By John Ledger
Associated Oregon Industries,

In a four-hour joint hearing of the House and Senate Environment & Natural Resources Committee, five AOI manufacturers, various member associations, other AOI Member companies, the Co-Chair of the AOI Air & Energy Committee, and AOI staff, all provided testimony on SB 80, the Greenhouse Gas Cap & Trade Bill.

The bill cedes virtually all legislative authority to the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to develop and implement a regional Cap & Trade system entirely by rule.  The region was initially defined as those states belonging to a loose consortium called the Western Climate Initiative (WCI).  Once comprised of a half dozen states and several provinces, the WCI appears to be tottering as state after state refuses to opt into the plan.  In the end, California and perhaps Washington may be the only states embracing the WCI concept.

By Bill Conerly,
Businomics, Conerly Consulting

A good question asked yesterday: Is this recession different from others in degree or in kind?  No recession hits the historic averages smack in the middle, so this one would have to be at least a little different in degree of severity or duration.  But might it be fundamentally different from the types of recession we’ve seen in the past?

I had not seen the question posed so bluntly, but I think that people like Treasury Secretary Geithner believe this recession is different in kind.  Perhaps he and others haven’t thought the question through in exactly this manner, but their behavior seems to reflect a conclusion on this question.

Dunn, Carney, Allen, Higgins and Tongue
Attorneys at Law, Portland, eAlerts

This year, employers have already had three major changes to deal with – significant FMLA changes, the passage of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, and a new U.S. Supreme Court decision that again expands the conduct protected by the anti-retaliation provision of Title VII – and we all see the signs that more changes are in the works.

Intel -– Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini today announced the company would spend $7 billion over the next two years to build advanced manufacturing facilities in the United States. The investment funds deployment of Intel’s industry-leading 32 nanometer (nm) manufacturing technology that will be used to build faster, smaller chips that consume less energy. The commitment represents Intel’s largest-ever investment for a new manufacturing process.

By Oregon Association of Hospitals and Health Systems,

A recently completed financial analysis has determined that Oregon hospitals will face almost $400 million in losses over the next two years under the 2009-2011 budget proposal presented to Oregon lawmakers by Governor Ted Kulongoski.  The 2009-2011 “Governor’s Recommended Budget” (GRB) proposes a new 4-percent tax on hospital services, with the tax revenue and corresponding federal match being used to cover all of the costs of providing insurance coverage through the Oregon Health Plan (OHP) to 100,000 adults. At the same time, the GRB proposes to reduce Medicaid payments to Oregon hospitals by almost 10 percent.

By Alyssa Williams, BIZ Reporter

Well, we sure know what Americans are doing to ease their troubled minds from the worsening economy – eating. And eating cheaply at that.  Lower-priced chocolate and fast food profits are on the rise, much to the dismay of nutritionists around the country. Hershey Co.’s profit rose 51 percent, reporting a fourth-quarter net income of $82.2 million compared to $54.3 million last year. Meanwhile, McDonald’s arches are looking ever more golden with a 7.1 percent worldwide increase in same-store sales for January.

However, after disappointing holiday sales, companies like Elizabeth Arden Inc., Estée Lauder Cos., Tiffany & Co., and Coach are reevaluating business in light of the downturn of consumer spending, which for many of these companies means lowering their earnings and sales forecasts.

By Ken Niezgoda,
Biz Reporter

With a growing number of his patients losing their jobs, and consequently their insurance coverage, Beaverton chiropractor Dr. Ted Forcum is discounting his service to help those struggling financially. Forcum increased to 20 percent the discount he offers to patients who pay at the time of service. Customers who must pay out-of-pocket can now receive more affordable care.

The discounting isn’t out of business necessity. In fact it comes at a time when chiropractors anticipate a natural increase in the demand for their services. According to a press release issued by the American Chiropractic Association, the Prevention and Wellness Initiative portion of President Obama’s economic stimulus bill could give a boost to chiropractic programs.

By Associated Oregon Industries,
Legislative Update,

AOI tells legislators that “bonus depreciation” is critical for business investment and recovery.

Oregon businesses watched capitol proceedings closely last week as legislators figured out how to deal with the federal economic stimulus legislation being considered in Congress.  Legislative leaders were worried that such a federal bill might actually create a significant cost impact for state government.  The legislative solution, crafted in the past week, was HB 2157, which completely disconnects Oregon from the federal stimulus legislation.  The effect of the bill is to deny Oregon taxpayers the tax benefits of the federal legislation on their Oregon tax returns.