BLUE STATE AND A RED BUSINESS SPELLS DISASTER

 

Oregon has become a deep blue State largely because of the influence of liberal voters in Portland and Eugene. For thirty two years my partners and I have run our industrial machinery business in Corvallis. The disadvantages of doing business in the progressively liberal political environment have become too much for the business to bear. The last six years, since the idiots in Washington D. C. crashed the economy, have been the most difficult in the history of the company. Employment fell from 107 workers to a low water mark of six people. None of the owners have drawn a paycheck for six years. Three years ago it became obvious that the anti-business slant of the Federal Government was not going to allow our traditional business to recover. We, as capitalists, pooled our time and resources and developed two new products aimed at the agricultural machinery market. The hard work and investment have paid off and farmers all over the country are buying our tractors. The success has allowed us to hire back 38 employees and we are in the process of trying to add on to our facility to increase production. The new facility will require an additional 38 employees bringing the total to less than our 2008 employment but still far better than six. Throughout the entire downturn and our struggle to recover none of the unemployed owners of the business filed to draw unemployment compensation, we requested no Federal, State or local assistance. The new level of business activity did get the States attention, not our State of Oregon mind you, but Texas, Wisconsin and South Carolina. These States actively started courting us to build our new tractor assembly plant in their jurisdiction. I approached the economic development people within the State of Oregon and asked if there were job creation incentives available from the State. What we received was a deep blue response. The social engineers in Oregon’s State government offered some tax deferral and possible loan guarantees if we would prove that our new jobs would pay 150% of the prevailing wage. I ask what the prevailing wage is and was told that they defined it as the local union scale wage rate. I explained to the Oregon economic development commission in writing that we compete against all of the foreign tractor manufacturers and that our wages are set by the free market supply and demand not by government legislation, further that we did not see a future for our business to grow in Oregon. To their credit I have been asked to testify before the commission to clarify my position.

Moving on to the local government issues facing our business, we seemed to be welcome at the county development level and started a modest expansion on our existing site to fill demand until our new facility is complete. The county required us to show a signed contract for the new building along with all of the drawings and engineering before we could apply for the building permit. The risk to us given this procedure is that if the permit is denied we will have a very expensive building with no place to erect it. Everything moved along until the permit application was submitted. A series of hurdles have been placed in front of us for which the only solution proposed by the county is further study of the feasibility of our project including delays and more cost in the form of additional permit fees. The problems were not presented to us until after the county had copies of the contract showing we had purchased the new building. I offered my opinion to the head of county planning that they had caused this mess and that it should not be left up to me to pay for cleaning it up. His response to me was that we could do this the easy way or the hard way but that in the end I would be required to comply with the counties demands. I have a meeting today with the county planner, county commissioner, and county economic development staff to inform them that if they do not find a solution to the problem, they have created, that does not include my check book our board of directors is going to cancel the project and move ahead in another jurisdiction. We have the ability to vote with our feet and we are going to do so.

At the end of the day we must go to the market with an economically viable product for our customers. It is apparent from our interaction with the State and local governments that this is not possible where the liberal politicians consider our business to be their piggy bank. The migration of businesses and jobs from blue States to red ones may very well include our company starting later today.