Is Oregon business friendly?

I'm considering moving my business from
CA to Oregon (Nevada is too, too hot).

Everything I've read makes Oregon sound
like a good choice but I'd like to hear
some real-life opinions.

Hi Louise,

Oregon is a beautiful place. Don Alm could likely give you a much better idea of the business-friendliness of the state, though I can tell you that no state is more anti-small business than California.

I can also tell you from experience that it might not be a bad idea to downplay the fact that you are from California. The level of teeth-gnashing varies from town to town, but we generally aren't welcomed with open arms there. (It does seem to be better near the border cities, like Portland and Ashland).

At one time, I even gave thought to the idea of moving to Nevada for six months, just so I could say I was moving to Oregon from Nevada. ;-)

Any thoughts to add Don? (Btw...I spent a few days of my honeymoon in your city in June, and ate at the best Mexican restaurant I've ever been to. I believe it was called Los Dos Amigos. Fantastic.) :-)

Mike Long

> I'm considering moving my business from
> CA to Oregon (Nevada is too, too hot).

> Everything I've read makes Oregon sound
> like a good choice but I'd like to hear
> some real-life opinions.




Resumes for less. Just ask!!

I moved to this small SW Oregon town in 1990 and found the area to be VERY helpful and open to business.

Our local Chamber of Comm and Econ Development committee has a campaign trying to lure businesses here. A bridge building firm from PA just committed to a spot in our county and Dell Computers is taking over an empty supermarket (Albertson's built a larger store and left the old one) for their telemarketing operation and hiring 200 locals.

NO Sales Tax here and many towns offer Tax incentives to get businesses to locate here.

One comment about the "Californication" of Oregon (or any area where Californians move) is that, many Californians move to get away from conditions they don't like in their areas (fast,rude, impatient drivers....left-wing whackos)....and yet they bring many of these traits with them.

It used to be just Portland and the college towns (Eugene,Ashland) were primarily Socialist...now that mode of thinking has infiltrated thruout.

Ex: A church hired a priest. When it was discovered the priest was gay....that was OK, as long as he was celibate. Only a few people left the congregation. Then, when it was discovered he was "active" with a "boyfriend"...only about 20% of the families left (mine included) Meaning, my little town is a lot more leftist than I thought.

I created and sold a bumper sticker which reads;
"WELCOME TO OREGON...THE WATERMELLON STATE... GREEN ON THE OUTSIDE AND RED INSIDE"!

Businesswise...we've had a Democrat Governor for the last 16 yrs. Oregon has a law that the legislature MUST balance the budget HOWEVER these "Tax and Spend" Governors have set up hundreds of beaurocratic offices AND...when "crunch time comes"...instead of eliminating these mostly useless offices and programs these, Governors and their Dem Libby followers start shaving from the SCHOOL budget....with their mantra being "Save the Schools...RAISE TAXES!" Nothing is EVER said about getting rid of the inconsequential programs and offices.

With the result being...the budget is now lacking 482 million. So...instead of looking HARD at cutting worthless offices and programs they stir up the populace with threatening to cut school programs...knowing full well the "dumb public" will NOT want to cut school programs SO...the only answer is to RAISE TAXES! The legislators are now meeting for the FIFTH time this year to try and come up with a solution which the Libby Guv has vetoed 4 other times.

10 yrs ago Oregon was collecting LOTS of money from Timber Sales. My town (Roseburg) USED to be known as "The Timber Capital of the World"! Then the "Tree Hugging Libbys" came in and shut her down with fraudulent RUSES that the home area of an owl was more important than humans or the state economy. (This same owl has been proved to THRIVE in the "habitat" of K-Mart signs)

And, because these libbys carry a "big stick" (the threat of lawsuits)....the "common-folk" back away with the result being we are NOW in SERIOUS DEBT.

So...yes...this state welcomes new businesses BUT, it's best if you find out that the libbys have taken it down a few steps...and could take it down farther...UNTIL the Conservatives start getting OUTRAGED and STANDING UP against the Activists!

When I arrived in this town in 1990... unemployment was hovering around 3%...it's now around TEN PERCENT...with MANY hundreds of families on welfare and aide. No matter how much the GUMMIT wants to make you believe THEY can train a person who has cut trees to sit at a PC and type a keyboard...IT AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN!

Unless this State (AND country) starts standing up against the libbys and their LIES...our lifestyles will continue to go downhill!

So...come on up! The SALMON FISHING is STILL pretty good.

Don Alm

> Hi Louise,

> Oregon is a beautiful place. Don Alm could
> likely give you a much better idea of the
> business-friendliness of the state, though I
> can tell you that no state is more
> anti-small business than California.

> I can also tell you from experience that it
> might not be a bad idea to downplay the fact
> that you are from California. The level of
> teeth-gnashing varies from town to town, but
> we generally aren't welcomed with open arms
> there. (It does seem to be better near the
> border cities, like Portland and Ashland).

> At one time, I even gave thought to the idea
> of moving to Nevada for six months, just so
> I could say I was moving to Oregon from
> Nevada. ;-)

> Any thoughts to add Don? (Btw...I spent a
> few days of my honeymoon in your city in
> June, and ate at the best Mexican restaurant
> I've ever been to. I believe it was called
> Los Dos Amigos. Fantastic.) :-)

> Mike Long




Some of my Unique, money-making programs.

although most people from Roseburg would not
consider it flattering. They were talking about
Angel's strip club in the "You Be the judge"
forum on page 59.

Yup! Our little burg has a strip club. I didn't know it was named "Angel's".

They opened about 4 yrs ago amid a lot of angry citizenry. Seems our erstwhile city council had not bothered to see if there were any ordinances against strip joints.

So...when everyone found out there wasn't any "legal" reason to keep them from opening, they dropped the anti-ness....with the thinking that it would shut down of it's own accord after a few months for lack of business BUT....since this is a "red-neck" area with lots of unemployed loggers....the drivers of "pick-em-up-trucks" have kept the place open for 4 yrs now.

Their other place in Eugene shut down 2 yrs ago.

It just sits there...on the outskirts of town...with 3 or 4 trucks every night.

You might have read about a NUN being raped and strangled with her own rosary last week in another small logging town of Klamath Falls.

They caught the guy the next day. Seems he spent most of the afternoon at one of these clubs, getting himself all worked up....then attacks a nun while taking her early evening walk.

For the most part though....these small ex-timber towns are a great place to live....provided you don't have to depend on your income from local business.

HOWEVER....I'm shutting down the Deck Renewal biz for the winter and starting up another advertising biz....placing "Info Boards" in lobbies of motels and placing ads in Restrooms.

I'll see if there's any ad dollars left here.

Don Alm

> although most people from Roseburg would not
> consider it flattering. They were talking
> about
> Angel's strip club in the "You Be the
> judge"
> forum on page 59.




Some of my Unique, money-making programs.