By: John Marshall, Associated Oregon Industries Referred to by House Revenue Committee Chair Phil Barnhart (D-Eugene) as the “beginning of the discussion” on increasing Oregon’s $10 corporate minimum tax. This week the committee heard two bills that do just that. HB 2119, introduced at Governor Kulongoski’s request, imposes a new […]

By Bill Conerly, Businomics, Conerly Consulting LLC, Home prices are down again.  The Case-Shiller home price numbers are pretty grim: This leads naturally to wondering about the impact of such a massive loss of homeowner wealth.  But my friend Randy Pozdena, who blogs occassionally over at The Ornery Economist, offers […]

By Portland Business Alliance, Portland, Ore. – The Portland Business Alliance today issued a statement supporting the decision to balance the FY 2007-09 budget shortfall without accessing the state’s rainy day funds. “We understand the difficulty of adjusting budgets this late in the fiscal year. But we need to take […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]