The Oregon Biz Report - Business News from Oregon

It Could Happen: Oregon’s Attorney General Announces Environmental Crimes Enforcement Unit
By Christopher Rycewicz, Brian T. Sniffen
Miller Nash LLP,
Oregon and Washington Law Firm

After less than one year on the job, Oregon Attorney General John Kroger appears close to fulfilling one of his campaign promises: increased prosecution of environmental crimes. He is in the process of appointing two statewide prosecutors to head up the new Environmental Crimes Enforcement Unit (the “ECEU”). According to a November 17, 2009, Department of Justice press release, Patrick A. Flanagan, a former Clackamas County district attorney, will head the ECEU. He will be assisted by Stephanie M. Parent, an environmental enforcement attorney. Mr. Flanagan and Ms. Parent will work under Mr. Kroger’s direction to prosecute environmental crimes statewide. We expect the ECEU to begin filing criminal complaints by the end of 2009. The ECEU will work closely with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, the state’s environmental compliance agency. The two agencies will meet weekly to discuss who will be charged with environmental crimes.

By Wells Fargo Bank,

Faced with an uncertain economy, some business owners are re-evaluating their use of technology. The latest Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index, surveyed October 5-9, shows over half of respondents (58 percent) reporting that they have delayed technology purchases due to the economy, including purchases of new computers (60 percent), new hardware (56 percent) and new software (56 percent). However, there is a narrow percentage (thirteen percent) who report accelerating purchases in order to cut costs or build efficiencies.

Treasurer Westlund seeks more transparency for investors about climate risks to companies
By Oregon State Treasurer Ben Westlund,

SALEM – In life and investing, there’s a truism that “What you don’t know can hurt you.” Oregon State Treasurer Ben Westlund is asking the Securities and Exchange Commission to reduce that uncertainty when it comes to climate change, and how the impacts could help or hinder companies and their bottom lines. Westlund is among the representatives of 20 major institutional investors that jointly submitted a petition Monday to the Securities and Exchange Commission, asking for greater transparency of climate-related risks and also opportunities because investors will ultimately pay — or profit – based on how well situated companies are when it comes to climate change.

Holiday shoppers will get an early start this year whether they are ready or not.  Retail giants have embarked on an advertising spending spree in an attempt to lure bargain shoppers to their stores earlier this year, signaling the economy may be on the rebound.

Target, Wal-Mart, Kmart, and Gap all plan to boost advertising spending over last year’s level in an attempt to get this seasons holiday shopping started early.  According to John Swallen, the senior vice president of research at TNS Media Intelligence, “We are seeing increases across a large number of retail advertisers. Clearly they are trying to jump-start their sales efforts.”

Already, we’ve seen the holiday season kick into gear, and retailers are trying to relate to the tough economic times.  “Frugal is the new cool,” says Bob Thacker, the senior vice president for advertising and marketing at OfficeMax  “Consumers may see as many Ebenezer Scrooges in ads this year as they see Santa Clauses.”  Kmart began their media blitz 30 to 40 days ahead of last year’s in an attempt to entice shoppers with their thrifty new slogan, “There’s Smart and there’s Kmart Smart.”

by Jessica Nelson
Oregon Employment Department

The number of working poor in the United States increased slightly between 2006 and 2007. The working poor are individuals who were in the labor force for at least 27 weeks during the year, but still had incomes below the official poverty level. About 7.5 million people fit that definition in 2007, up from 7.4 million in 2006. The working poor accounted for 5.1 percent of all people who were in the labor force 27 weeks or more in 2007.

These figures come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) annual Profile of the Working Poor.

Those who were usually employed part time were more likely to be among the working poor. The working poor rate was 3.6 percent for those workers who were usually employed full time, while it was 11.9 percent for those usually employed part time.

By Bill Conerly, Businomics, Conerly Consulting,

This recession has shaken people up, but what will be the lasting effects on consumer behavior?  That’s one of the key questions as we look forward at the nature of the recovery.  I’ve been arguing for a “return to normalcy,” in which people will abandon the exuberance of the boom, but without going overboard into miserliness.  However, some folks are looking for a return to Great Depression-born attitudes toward thrift.  So let’s look at the savings rate in the Great Depression and afterward.

The latest consumer products that are being caught up in the regulatory spotlight are flat screen TVs, rum, and raw oysters.

Flat screen TVs
In California, the California Energy Commission (CEC) is considering new efficiency standards for television screens smaller than 58 inches.  If adopted, TVs sold in the state will have to be 33 percent more efficient by 2011 and consume 49 percent less energy by 2013.  It’s a proposal that shows a recent trend toward energy conservation even at the expense of middle class consumers.

Washington Domestic Partnership Law Impacts Employee Benefits and Family Leave
by Dennis Westlind
Stoel Rives LLP, Attorneys at Law

Washington voters recently approved Referendum 71, giving registered domestic partners all of the rights and responsibilities of married couples under Washington state law. Prior domestic partnership laws gave registered domestic partners limited rights and responsibilities such as hospital visitation, health care decision making, inheritance and community property rights. The new law includes all of the rights and responsibilities granted to married couples under state law.

By Kylene Fickenscher
Oregon Entrepreneurs Network

Stephanie Stano, founder of Recycle Your Mat, and Zenana Rose of Zenana Spa are developing successful businesses within a specific niche market. By delivering innovative ideas to an untapped market, and supplementing their products with strong connections to the community, these women have developed lasting entrepreneurial models.

Recycle Your Mat: socially responsible yoga mat recycling, upcycling and reuse services

Stephanie Stano revealed her business opportunity to the yoga industry –an arena which is growing rapidly – and now offers recycling, upcycling and reuse services for yoga practitioners and yoga centers.  Recycle Your Mat strives to modify consumer behavior, and alter individual’s thoughts on what they can do with their mat.

Barran Liebman LLP
Oregon Law Firm,

On Wednesday, November 18, 2009, the Senate released its take on health care reform through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. While in some ways similar to the recent House bill, the Senate bill reflects some key differences of significance to employers. A summary of important issues for employers follows:

Employer Contributions
Unlike the House bill, the Senate bill does not contain a mandate requiring employers of a certain size to maintain health coverage. It does, however, impose a penalty on those that do not. Specifically, employers with an average of at least 50 full-time employees (“large employers”) would pay a monthly penalty amounting to $750 per year for each employee who receives a federal subsidy to buy insurance. Large employers covering less than 60 percent of employees’ health insurance costs may also be subject to a penalty. Small businesses, on the other hand, could be eligible for a credit to help offset health insurance costs.

From Regional Multiple Listing Service

Sales activity continued to outpace levels from the same month last year in the latest RMLS™ Market Action report. Inventory was also down in several areas, including Lane County, Portland and Clark County.

Both pending and closed sales increased in 9 out of 10 of the regions that we cover when compared to the same month in 2008. The Portland metro area saw its largest increase in closed sales since January 2005, which was also the highest total of closed sales since August 2007. Clark County set a record for pending sales, with an increase of 56.9% compared to last October. Here’s a recap of each region’s same-month sales activity:

José Pinomesa, Chairman
Oregon Independent Auto Dealers Association

It is now November and the sale of vehicles has slowed down quite a bit.  I have always said that those with money will always buy what they want when they want.  The problem we have now is not so much with new cars and those that have the money but with used cars and those that need the money.  Many people that would like a used car cannot go through with the purchase.

This is due to many different reasons but the most obvious is that they need a job.  We still have an unemployment rate of 11.5 %.  If you do not have a job then getting an auto loan is close to impossible.  Lenders feel that with no job you will have no way to make your payments.  This year alone I have had more customers than normal looking for cars but say they cannot purchase one until they get a job.

Dr. Eric Fruits,
Econinternational

Oregon’s legislators are quick to complain that they had to find $2 billion in state budget cuts in the last legislative session. These  complaints are a bit disingenuous when, in fact, as the figure above shows, the legislatively approved budget has increased by $7.6 billion since the last budget.

New Oregon law has ramifications for employers
By Matt Lowe,
Odonnell and Clark and Crew,
Portland law firm

Do you have, or do you know of, an employee who always seems to complain about company policies and how those policies violate the employee’s “right” of free speech, or her “right” to privacy, or some other “right” of the employee?  Often this employee is not one of the best employees of the company and, at some point, the employer may get fed up and decide to fire, demote, or take some sort of action to try to get the employee shut up and to actually devote his or her energy to work-related activities.  If you do this, you might very well get sued under a new Oregon law which substantially strengthens the protections for employees who report a private employer’s violations of a state or federal law, rule or regulation.  This new law has significant ramifications for all private employers in Oregon.

The new law will go into effect on January 1, 2010, and states:

By Bill Conerly, Businomics, Conerly Consulting

I’ve updated my economic forecast for 2010.  Here’s a chart showing quarterly growth rates:

More than 417,000 New Jobs Needed in Oregon To Revive and Grow the Economy
U.S. Chamber’s Campaign for Free Enterprise Travels to the Northwest

PORTLAND, OR—Today, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s American Free Enterprise. Dream Big. campaign traveled to Oregon to engage local business leaders in an ongoing effort to highlight the need to create 20 million jobs nationwide, and more than 417,000 in Oregon, over the next decade.

“Oregon has been hit hard by the economic downturn these past few years,” said Brian Gunderson, managing vice president for the Campaign for Free Enterprise.  “Now the question is how to create jobs and jumpstart the state’s economy. That is what the American Free Enterprise. Dream Big. campaign is all about.  We need to remind people that free enterprise has created more economic benefits for more people than any other system in history.”

CareerBuilder Survey Reveals the Most Unusual Requests or Suggestions Hiring Managers Received

CHICAGO, November 11, 2009 – Hiring managers nationwide took some time to bring levity to the workplace in a new CareerBuilder survey. More than 2,900 shared the most memorable requests or recommendations they have received in the office suggestion box. Responses included:

- Request to allow people to change clothes in their cubicles.
- Request to add a tanning bed to the break room.
- Request to put beer in the vending machine.
- Request that jail time be covered under family medical leave.
- Request to institute bikini Fridays.

By Patrick Emerson
Oregon Economics Blog

The Oregonian reports on Portland having received a rating as one of the safest walking cities in America—Portland was #9. But is it really a safe walking city?

The methodology is seriously flawed. It is clearly designed to make a political point and not provide meaningful data. The way they compiled the ranking was to divide the number of pedestrian deaths divided by the number of people who walk to work. What you would ideally want is some measure of total pedestrians or, better yet, total pedestrian-hours.

Proxying this by using walking to work may seem like a good idea, but I doubt that it is. Clearly walking to work is very, very highly correlated with urban density but may not be correlated with the population who walk for any reason at any time. So you skew the statistics and, not surprisingly, very dense cities look safe and sprawling cities do not. Which is, I imagine, their point.

Now, I hate sprawl as much as the next guy, but it is not necessarily bad for walking safety in general. Yes, you can’t walk to get everywhere, but walking around inside the little cloistered neighborhoods that were the rage before the new urbanism ethos kicked in is probably pretty safe.

What sprawl is bad for is walking in general. I don’t think conflating the two is helpful.

Mark Burles
Senior Vice President
Ipsos Public Affairs , Seattle

I think the biggest decision the Obama Administration confronts in preparing for his upcoming visit to China is not what issues to raise with his hosts, but how to raise them.

Addressing the key topics first, the issues we need to discuss with the Chinese leadership are pretty clear. Specifically, we need to talk about when and how the Yuan will appreciate relative to the dollar and, more broadly, how China is going to re-balance it’s economy toward higher personal consumption while the US moves towards higher personal savings. This is a part of a much larger issue, as China and the US are at the center of the global economic transition that won’t be resolved until the extremes in savings and consumption within our two very large economies are addressed.

Polls show recession not over, and publis wants business to help not government
From Oregon Small Business Association,

82% of Americans think the recession is not over
62% said business will play a larger role in helping the economy recovery than government
45% rated the economy as the most important issue
62% believe economic growth should take priority over environment

New polls highlight public concern with the current state of the economy and demonstrate that Americans do not believe the recession is over.  Overall, polls are showing an increase in pro-business sentiments and a drop in investor’s confidence in President Obama and his economic team.  According to ABC News, 74 percent of Americans rate the economy negatively and 59 percent say their own finances are hurting.  Six in ten Americans are worried about their family’s financial prospects.