By Ken Niezgoda, BIZ Reporter, Even though health clubs in Oregon haven’t experienced the dramatic drop-off in consumer spending that has plagued the restaurant industry, Sherry Summerville of the Clackamas East Side Athletic Club feels the need to help families who are feeling the financial pinch. Summerville is opening up […]

How help is coming to small business.  Profile of Mayor Sam Adams and NFIB efforts. By Alyssa Williams, Mayor Sam Adams announced that the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) will make low-interest loans available to small businesses in Oregon economically impacted by this winter’s storms.  Adams believes these Economic Injury […]

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 […]