The Oregon Biz Report - Business News from Oregon

Oregon NFIB,

Beginning midnight on Oct. 31, the NFIB Young Entrepreneur Foundation will be accepting applications for the 2010 Young Entrepreneur Awards. High school seniors with a flair for entrepreneurship are encouraged to apply online for a chance to win a scholarship valued from $1,000-$10,000. The deadline for applying for an award is December 31. If you know an impressive young entrepreneur, please encourage them to apply today.  All selected scholarship winners must be nominated by an NFIB member, and we are currently seeking more NFIB members who are willing to get involved with this year’s group of award winners. If you are interested in sponsoring a young entrepreneur, please sign up to be a nominator here.

The House of Representatives Releases Its Health Care Reform Bill
Barran Liebman LLP
Oregon Law Firm,

Today, the House of Representatives released its reconciled Health Care Reform bill providing employers with half the blueprint for what their group health plans will look like in the future. The House bill is very similar to the Senate Finance Committee bill issued a few weeks ago providing a fairly clear blueprint for the future of American Health Care. We should expect to see a reconciled Senate bill in the near future.  The important issues for employers related to the House Health Care bill are as follows (most are effective January 1, 2013):

Employer Mandate

The House bill provides an employer mandate for businesses with an annual payroll of greater than $750,000. Employers with annual payroll of $750,000 who do not elect to provide health benefits must contribute 8 percent of payroll to a health care fund. Employers with payroll of greater than $500,000 but less than $750,000 have a graduated tax requirement if they elect not to provide compliant health care.

By Oregon Small Business Association,

As the Bureau of Labor chart shows, Oregon and California Metro-area cities are suffering with higher than average unemployment rates. These two states are rare compared to other states which either are improving better than the national average or at least have a few city areas that are improving better than the national average.   Oregon and California are dominated by these job loss metro-cities.  Portland was ranked the 17th highest job loss city which lost 5.9% of it’s jobs last year. There were 99 of 100 biggest US cities that suffered declines.

Bloomberg reports, “Orders for U.S. durable goods rose in September for the fourth time in the past six months, a sign factories are helping ring in an economic recovery.The 1 percent increase in bookings for goods meant to last several years matched the median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News and followed a 2.6 percent drop the prior month, Commerce Department data showed today in Washington. Excluding transportation equipment, orders climbed 0.9 percent, exceeding the survey median. “

GINA Requires Employers to Post Notice, Review Policies
Stoel Rives LLP, Attorneys at Law
Dennis Westlind, Portland,

The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) takes effect November 21, 2009.  Is your workplace ready?  Employers will soon be required to post a notice stating that they do not discriminate on the basis of genetic information, under proposed regulations interpreting GINA.

If you don’t already have one, click here to download the full “EEO is the Law” poster, which describes all of the Federal laws prohibiting job discrimination based on race, color, sex, national origin, religion, age, equal pay, disability and genetic information.  If you already have a copy of “EEO is the Law,” then you can download and print the “EEO is the Law Supplement,” which contains GINA information.  (If you don’t want to print it yourself, or if you need the poster in Arabic, Chinese or Spanish, click here to order a copy from the EEOC.)

From an NBC/Wall Street Journal Poll:

- 81% say we are a part of a longer-term economic decline
- 27% think the country is headed in the right direction
- 65% say they feel less confident that life for their children’s generation
- 60% doubt the Iraq war will come to a successful conclusion.

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By Oregon Tax News,

Often overlooked, smaller tax increases will be facing thousands of Oregon homeowners, in addition to possible new taxes in Multnomah County, Hood River and Ashland.

Recent local proposals include an extension of the Ashland meals tax, along with increased driver registration fees and higher property taxes in Multnomah County.   Some local cities, like Hood River, will be wrestling with a local gas tax increase. These smaller taxes have lost attention in light of the much larger $733 million Oregon tax referendum measures approaching the January ballot.

Property Tax Increases despite recession, home value drop

By Bill Conerly, Conerly Consulting LLC, Businonmics

I try not rant in this blog.  I really try.  But here’s the Wall Street Journal headline:  “Housing Starts Rise, but Remain Subdued.”  On the other hand, CNBC says, ” Producer Prices, Housing Starts Post Surprise Drops.” Huh?  Did housing starts rise, or did they drop?  Turns out, they effectively did neither.  Oh, there was a tiny change from last month to this month, but really, really tiny, so much that they were effectively flat.  Look at the chart and see if you don’t agree.

By Oregon Employment Department,

Oregon’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dropped to 11.5 percent in September from the revised August figure of 12.0 percent. September’s rate was the lowest since the 10.7 percent rate in February, and was down from the high of 12.2 percent in May. Nonetheless, the rate is still very high by recent historical standards. By comparison, the annual average Oregon unemployment rate for all prior years dating back to 1986 ranged between a low of 4.9 percent in 1995 and a high of 8.1 percent in 2003. Oregon’s unemployment rate was 6.8 percent in September 2008.

The decline in Oregon’s unemployment rate in September was due to a drop of 11,080 in the seasonally adjusted number of unemployed individuals. The civilian labor force (seasonally adjusted) was close to being unchanged, edging down by 1,129 over the month.

State Treasurer Ben Westlund receiving treatment for recurrence of cancer, is confident of recovery.  The flare-up was detected early and Westlund remains at work while undergoing therapy
BY State Treasurer Office,

SALEM – Oregon Treasurer Ben Westlund is receiving treatment to combat a recurrence of cancer, he disclosed today in a letter to his staff at the Oregon State Treasury. Westlund, 60, who previously had lung cancer, receives regular scans to quickly detect any return. He said he started treatment earlier this year, but remains on the job and expressed confidence the treatments will be successful.

By Oregon Better Business Bureau,
See full top 20 list here,

Top 10 Complaints

1. Auto Dealers – New Cars
2. Television – Cable, CATV & Satellite
3. Auto Dealers – Used Cars
4. Auto Repair & Service
5*. Property Management
5*. Furniture – Retail
7. Video Tapes & Discs Sales & Rentals
8. Collection Agencies
9. General Merchandise – Retail
10. Real Estate Loans

Top 10 Inquires:

By Oregon Business Report,

A simple apology saved a business millions and satisfied customer complaints.  New studies show businesses can improve customer relations without dropping a rebate check in the mail.  Researchers at Britain’s Nottingham School of Economics tracked 632 customer complaints posted on a German eBay site.  In an attempt to correct problems, half of the disgruntled customers received an apology while half received cash rebates ranging from $3 to $8.  Forty-five percent of the customers who received an apology removed their critical ratings, compared to 21% of those who received a cash apology.

Oregon Provides Short Window for Taxpayer Amnesty; Those That Don’t Comply Get the Stick
Written by Morgan Smith
Miller Nash
Oregon and Washington Law Firm

Taxpayers having a tax deficiency and flying under the radar of the Oregon Department of Revenue were given a break when Governor Kulongoski signed Senate Bill 880 on July 15, 2009. The new law created a voluntary tax amnesty program for Oregon individuals and corporations with tax deficiencies resulting from unfiled or underpaid tax returns. The program’s goal is to provide incentives to delinquent taxpayers to move forward, resolve their outstanding tax obligations, and provide for future compliance with state tax laws. Eligible taxes include corporate income and excise tax, personal income tax, inheritance tax, and Lane and Tri-Met Transit District self-employment taxes for all tax years prior to 2008.

MSN Money reports, “Nike Inc. co-founder and Chairman Phil Knight has sold more than $150 million of Nike stock in the past week, according to documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday. Knight sold 2.3 million shares for prices ranging between $64.13 and $66.34 starting Oct. 14.”

By Bill Conerly, Businomics, Conerly Consulting LLC

“Technical debt” does NOT mean, “Technically, we’re in debt.”  Technical debt is what happens when a business puts up an application that isn’t perfect, then has to clean up bugs and scale issues in the future.  I heard the phrase for the first time in a great discussion on TWiST (This Week in Startups) in which Mike Jones and Peter Hirschberg were interviewed.  (Mike, the new COO of MySpace, is an adviser to my startup, abcInvesting.com, and an incredibly insightful guy.)

Technical debt most often arises in the high-tech new product arena.  Somebody gets an idea for Twitter, and throws it up not having a clue whether it will appeal to 1 thousand users or 1 million users.  Oh, turns out it’s 10 million–so far.  With that many users, there are scaling issues that weren’t solved in the first version, because that first version was about getting something up and seeing if it attracted users.  Now there’s a technical debt to be paid to bring the system up to current traffic levels.

Reuters reports, “World stocks hit a new 12-month high on Tuesday, powered by strong results from Apple Inc and Texas Instruments and helping to push the dollar to a new 14-month low against a basket of currencies. The strength in global stocks, up 75 percent from crisis-lows in March, boosted optimism on corporate earnings and the global recovery, encouraging traders to sell dollars for higher-yielding currencies.”

By Nick Beleiciks, Senior Analyst
Oregon Employment Department

There were 18,242 job openings in Oregon this spring, according to the results of the 2009 Oregon Job Vacancy Survey. That was significantly fewer than the 47,888 job vacancies employers reported last spring. Despite the weaker economy, employers reported a tough time filling certain occupations, and one in ten vacancies went unfilled for at least two months.

The survey, conducted in late May and early June, provided information regarding the number of job vacancies, their required education level or licenses, and starting wages being offered in Oregon. Employers also provided insights into how long openings went unfilled and whether the vacancies were for newly created positions. Some of the key findings are:

Oregon jury finds that employer must compensate workers for donning and doffing
Bullard Smith Jernstedt Wilson
BULLARD eAlert

A recent jury verdict serves as a good reminder to employers: where an employer requires employees to don or doff uniforms/protective gear at the place of employment, and the donning/doffing may be an integral and indispensable part of the employee’s principal duties, then the time spent doing that may be compensable.  In our newest Bullard Alert we discuss these issues in more detail.

Bureau of Economic Analysis,

State Personal Income Percent Change: Second Quarter 2009

U.S. personal income grew 0.2 percent in the second quarter of 2009, the first growth in a year for the U.S. and for 15 states, according to estimates released today by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the first quarter, U.S. personal income fell 2.3 percent.

By Patrick Emerson
Oregon Economics Blog

This map shows all of Oregon’s export markets and their relative size. It is a nifty way to get an idea of with whom we trade and how much we trade with each.

This week, I have had exchanges with two reporters about Oregon’s economy in relation to Intel’s strong performance (Oregonian) and the Dow at 10,000 (OPB). To both, I expressed the opinion that if there is a bright spot for the Oregon economy in the near future it is the robust return to growth in Asia, particularly in China.