It's way past time for a serious discussion over why we are first in, last out, and have the highest unemployment numbers during a recession.

I think we need to look at both Washington and Idaho, states which fare much better in these times, and see what they are doing differently. Tax policy, land use policy and infrastructure are three things that come to mind immediately.

It's heading towards 12% by June, 14-15% by next fall and worse through next winter, with Kulongoski's blue and green plans crippling the State and it's populous for at least a decade.
With higher fees, higher taxes and higher utility bills for all.

And without any rescue by his "green economy" every arriving.

I just wonder when the blues here will stop celebrating?

The solution is deficit spending and $1Trillion in new taxes. This is the change we've been waiting for.

I think there's another four months or so when you can still blame Bush and the Republicans for this. Beyond that, the Democrats in control of the White House, Senate, Congress, Oregon Senate, Oregon House, Oregon Governor's office, etc. will need to take responsibility for the economic conditions. That's the downside of having complete control-you end up with complete responsibility, especially when you have a supermajority.

Jamie- I was talking about Oregon, and thought that was quite clear in the post.

I think the comments pretty much illustrate the problem. Blaming one another isn't fixing anything.

My point was that other states are doing better and traditionally do better during these times. Shouldn't we be taking a look at what they're doing to see if we're missing something?

Obama and the Democrats have 28 years of republican economic mismanagement to undo......... It would only be fair that they have at least as long to solve the problem as was taken to cause it.

Republicans have a selective memory, a very, very selective memory. They don't remember or recognize anything that conflicts with their carefully Rush-Hannity constructed world view.

BTW What does Washington State have that Oregon don't have economically? A gigantic shipping port and humongous military spending. Military bases, that's Guvmint spending for all you repbs out there, taxpayer money.

I think those two factors make a huge difference in the economies of both states. They have them, Oregon doesn't. Both of those entities create an enormous amount of stable jobs with lots of ancillary employment as a result.

Oregon? We've got some farms, some timber...... but not allot of big employers like a Tacoma, Seattle, Fort Lewis, Bremerton, there's a Air Force Base up there as well.

So, you might say a large part of Washington State's economy is based on government handouts, if you were a repub, that is. Oregon, we're just much more about pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps and not depending on suckling on Uncle Sam's udder.

These are two totally different states. Idaho is kind of hard to assess. They seem to be doing well but don't have nearly the populations of either Oregon or Washington.

Much of the economy in Portland is transportation based. When fuel prices spiked in the first half of 2008, retail sales in many sectors of the economy plummeted, deliveries of consumer goods were down and trucking industry employment took a big hit due to both the high fuel prices and the downturn in business. This prelude antagonized and accelerated the looming recession brought on by the mortgage crisis. Even though the economy as a whole tanked and got worse in the second half of 2008, retail sales in some sectors improved when gas prices came down.

Enter Gov Kulongoski with his attacks and proposals to triple the taxes and fees on motor vehicles, the primary means of transportation for the majority of Oregonians; to eliminate jobs by banning the sale of after some after market products for automobiles, some of which actually improve fuel economy; and then there are all those tax dollars he wants to give away to big corporations for energy projects that would built any way. All this autocrat over thinking will only slow down retail sales and the harm the economy even more.

This is a Governor gone wacko with the mindset of a socialist dictator, not a Governor of the people, by the people, for the people. If Kulongoski truly wants to lower the unemployment rate, he first must not do anything that would eliminate existing jobs, and then not propose anything to significantly increase the cost of living to the majority of working class Oregonians. Moreover, he would not recommend constructing anything that would create an increased operational debt and he would keep any new taxes minimal, balancing them across the board when they apply to the majority of Oregonians such as transportation taxes. For example, instead of expecting motor vehicles to be the cash cows for other transport modes, bicyclists ought to be directly taxed to pay for bicycle infrastructure, and transit passengers should be charged higher fares with a surcharge to help pay for the heavy damage two-axle busses do the roads and to better reflect the cost of providing the service.

Hopefully the legislature will see the light at the end of the tunnel currently being obliterated by the clouds of dust Kulongoski is creating, and then be constructive by rejecting costly schemes.

I think there's another four months or so when you can still blame Bush and the Republicans for this.

Nice try, from the party that blamed Clinton for the 2001-2002 recession, and that still blames LBJ and the Great Society for many economic problems of today.

Herbert Hoover's mess took at least six years to clean up, and Hoover was no where near as dumb as the Bush League.

Kevin:

We are reaping the fruits of Republican's "trickle-down" economic hypothesis.

Bob T:

That's just a talking point, and not very accurate. It wasn't even much of a difference when Reagan was still in there. When Reagan came in the America economy was very highly regulated at all levels. When he left it still was. And it still is.

But I have noticed that progressives have acknowledged what trickle-down means, and that it is a positive thing.

Bob Tiernan Mult Co

Beyond that, the Democrats in control of the White House, Senate, Congress, Oregon Senate, Oregon House, Oregon Governor's office, etc.

And later:

I was talking about Oregon, and thought that was quite clear in the post.

Because the White House and Congress are unique to Oregon.

Unrepent Lib: According to a 2004 report by the Washington Office of Financial Management, the military bases account for 5.7% of the state's econ. Significant yes, but really enough to create that much of a difference? See report here

Unrepent Lib: According to a 2004 report by the Washington Office of Financial Management, the military bases account for 5.7% of the state's econ. Significant yes, but really enough to create that much of a difference? See report here

The point here is, the voters put Democrats in charge because they promised to "change" things and solve all the problems. Instead, what we're getting is a bunch of finger-pointing and bitching. That's not leadership. But yeah, best of luck blaming Bush and running against him in 2010 like you did in 2004, 2006, 2008, etc. Let's see how well that works, especially since, as I previously pointed out, Democrats have COMPLETE control at the state and federal level, regardless of how you attempt to twist my words.

What does Washington State have that Oregon don't have economically? A gigantic shipping port and humongous military spending. Military bases, that's Guvmint spending for all you repbs out there, taxpayer money...I think those two factors make a huge difference in the economies of both states. They have them, Oregon doesn't. Both of those entities create an enormous amount of stable jobs with lots of ancillary employment as a result.

BINGO. Not sure how Dave Lister can possibly miss this; probably willful oversight on his part, as ignoring these issues allows him to turn the discussion around to something about land-use planning. In his 2nd comment, Lister says that the blame game does not help, but he's never been shy about the blame game when it comes to local politics.

In terms of vision and commitment to the public welfare, I think Oregon is kind of like Mississippi without the humidity, but instead we've spent the last 40 years patting ourselves on the back about the Bottle Bill, and making commitments to, say, public education that we fail to fund. My 7th grader is asking me why her Spanish teacher is likely to get laid off. I have a feeling a lot of parents are hearing stuff like this.

Probably some good jobs in the prison-industrial complex, however. This is America, after all: we can always count on the voters to short-change education, say, in order to lock up more meth addicts.

Hmm, Food Indusrty - declining (remember Agripac?) Agriculture - declining forestry - declining fishing - declining. Pretty much dead, actually.

Okay, enough with the traditional industries. So what are we left with, outside of portland?

Government - expanding. woohoo! Tourism. Come to oregon and see the breadlines. Brewing, under assault Wine - see brewing (they'll be next).

Any questions?

The GOP are still blaming FDR, Carter and Clinton for frak's sake

Sources please.

The pretense that we've had 30 years of Reaganomics is just complete garbage.

We've had 30 years of runaway government. Whatever conservative principals Reagan tried to retain were quickly overwhelemd by Congress and government itself at all levels. As was the case during following the 94 Republic take over and Bush election. Conservatism and responsibility quickly eroded and was replaced with government gone wild with votes of approval by both Democrats and Republicans every single budget cycle.

Try and use reality when discussing our current massive expansion of eactly what we have been doing all along and stop pretending we are witnessing a new direction.

We've got the lowest (or is it second-lowest?) corporate taxes in the country.

Curious, what is your source. Using corp tax rates, there are 15 states with lower rates and 3 w/o any corp tax.

Maybe it is best to look at the role other factors have. Massachusetts has a Jan. unemployment rate of 6.9%. Massachusetts doesn't have a lot of military bases. but it does have a lot of private colleges and universities clustered in and around Boston. Something like 70 in the greater Boston area.

Oregon's two major schools have been OU in Eugene and OSU in Corvallis while the population in clustered in the Portland area.

One might want to look at the impact, or lack of impact those two schools have had over the years. How many businesses have been incubated by them? How many of the graduates stay in state. Especially how many of OSU engineering grads stay in state and go on to develop manufacturing and or design businesses?

Lib Guy

There was a graphic I saw recently that showed Corvallis as the city in OR with the most patents filed, and one of the top cities in the country for patents filed. Now, whether or not they are monetizing those patents is another story.

Besides the many colleges and universities

Massechusettes has 12 Fortune 500 companies and 22 Fortune 1000 companies

Oregon has 2 Fortune 500 and 6 Fortune 1000

Richard

I would argue that Fortune lists are not a good indicator of business climate. Oregon has always been driven by "small" business and when you combine the employment of the 82 Inc 5000 companies, you get a significant employment base from them alone.

If you look at Inc 5000 companies per million residents, Oregon(21.6 per million residents) beats both WA(17.7) and ID(11.2).

Comparing OR with states in the NE is probably apples/oranges due to the sheer population density there. Heck, in the time it takes to drive from Porlandia to Medford, you would have had access to, what, 40% of the countries population back east?

TLG- PSU isn't a bad school either but your right doesn't have the name rec or the size of UO and OSU. The lack of impact of the UofO is HUGE. If the U here put even an iota of the amount promoting their academic and leadership programs as they do their atheletes, new stadiums and facility upgrades maybe then businesses would be more interested in be close to our graduates. Not sure if the same is true at OSU but I can say that I don't here a lot about their academics either unless it's about what players have been suspended for flunking. If we want our colleges to help our economy then we need to convince them that building new arenas isn't the way to do it (in the long term anyway)

Blame Republicans for OUR high unemployment here in Oregon?

Our Governor's have been Democrats for a long time and this person either signs or vetoes the Legislators spending or tax Bills.

And Democrats, here in Oregon not DC, have run the Senate, Treasury and the A.G. office for decades and the House for quite a while as well. Democrats haven't for years even allowed a Hearing on a Republican written/sponsored Bill.

Since Democrats have had the majority, HERE in Oregon, since at least the 2007 session, two years now and going, what have they done to improve the job situation? Obviously NOTHING.

These are indeed scary times but I think we should stop making ourselves terrified. The new doesn’t help with this either. I was appalled by a story on Chanel 2 the other day. It should have been called the “guide on how to effectively brown nose” It was on how not to get fired (or so they claim). • Be friendly • Take on extra work w/o extra pay • Don’t ask for a pay increase • Become your manager’s friend as it’s hard to fire a friend. This was just sick. I say form a union!

Jennie,

That's one of the most abused claims in Oregon.

How many green jobs have been created in Gresham?

For all proactical purposes there are not any companies looking at investing in and moving to Oregon because of that commitment.

I don't buy it that Gresham has a "number of companies" considering moving to the city because of Gresham's commitment to green energy".

You don;t know who they are do you?

The names are probably confidential information.

What does a "committment to green energy" say to a company?

High cost?

This is a terrifying statistic: out of 1,000 people, 99 are unemployed. Whether this is somehow the fault of either the reds or the blues is, in my opinion, unimportant. Proving, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Senator Evil Did It won't return the 14,000 jobs we lost in December.

The questions I think are important are: 1) How do we stimulate the Oregon economy? 1b) How do we make "buying local" popular enough to have an impact? 2) How do we promote job growth here at home? 2b) How do we attract investments from out-of-state businesses? 3) How do we prevent this collapse from reoccurring in 5, 10, 20 years? (Aside from defeating Senator Evil's party.)

These are not hypothetical questions. If we discover - or create - answers that are intelligent enough, we will be able to make sure our grandchildren won't suffer the way we are today.

Listen to Lard Larson M-F.

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Posted by: Capitol Staffer | Feb 26, 2009 2:49:29 PM

The GOP are still blaming FDR, Carter and Clinton for frak's sake

Sources please.

1)Legalize marijuana and tax it now before California does.

2)Build a nuclear power plant on the South Coast.

3)Build a high speed rail line from Eugene to Portland.

4)Amend building codes and provide tax incentives to build a major conference center and hotels in the wine country outside of Newberg.

5)Build a riverfront baseball stadium in Portland and get an MLB team.

6)Never, ever let another school year be shortened for Oregon children. Get a sales tax.

This is why I advise all of my clients to become self employed and establish multiple streams of income.

A big problem that we have is that we refuse to look at what is already here. We always go for the "big name" company that makes for a tidy photo op for the mayor or gov. How about we look at those companies that are here already and ask them what the state can do to help them grow.

There are 82 companies on the Inc 5000 list of fastest growing companies in the US based in Oregon.

These companies have revenue of $2.345 Billion and employ 7859 Oregonians right now. A rep of the state should call them today and ask if the state can assist them in any way to aid in their growth.

Then the state needs to contact all Chambers of Commerce in the state and talk to small businesses and see what the state can do to get more companies on that list next year.

I blame any politician, Rep or Dem, who voted for the "bailout." How quickly people forget. "If we don't pass this bill, the DJIA will collaps to 8000." Check. "If we don't pass this bill, unemployment will skyrocket." Check. "If we don't pass this bill, the housing market will collapse." Check.

At the time there was a bipartisan outcry from some of the most respected economists in the world--Joe Stigletz, Paul O'Neill, James Galbraith--saying that not only was this bailout not likely to work, but it could make things worse.

Guess what folks? The bailout made things worse! And don't buy the BS from Obama, because $75B hard fought for mortgages is a drop in the bucket, but we're still forking hundreds of billions into the bottomless balance sheets of big banks. "Too big to fail" ceased to be the responsibility of the taxpayer as soon as Glass-Steagal was repealed. Let the big banks fail. Let hedge funds fail. Let billionaires lose it all. They will get along just fine on the several million they have left over. Let those who lived by the market die by the market. End socialism for the rich.

I want to discuss cost.

I want to discuss cost.