SALEM, Ore., Oct. 28, 2014—The nonpartisan Tax Foundation today released its 2015 State Business Tax Climate Index, and the report ranked Oregon a seemingly respectable 12th best in the nation. But don’t stare too long at that number warned the state director for Oregon’s largest small-business association. It’s not what it appears.
The index measured a state’s corporate taxes, individual income taxes, sales tax, unemployment insurance tax and property-tax rank to come up with an overall score. Oregon came out No. 12 in the nation. “The absence of a major tax is a common factor among many of the top ten states,” wrote the index’s authors.
“Yes, we have no sales tax,” said Jan Meekcoms, Oregon state director for the National Federation of Independent Business, “which is our only advantage, but look at our ranking in the other index components: 36th in corporate taxes; 31st in individual income taxes; and 30th in unemployment insurance taxes. These are dismal figures negatively affecting business and therefore our economic future. We see the results in our higher-than-average unemployment figures for almost two decades and in our income per capita being consistently below our neighbors. Go figure.”
With 350,000 dues-paying members across the nation, including more than 7,000 in Oregon, NFIB is the nation’s largest and leading small-business association. More information about small business, especially its difference from big business, can be found in this media kit with brief, single pages of bulleted information.
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For more than 70 years, the National Federation of Independent Business has been the Voice of Small Business, taking the message from Main Street to the halls of Congress and all 50 state legislatures. NFIB annually surveys its members on state and federal issues vital to their survival as America’s economic engine and biggest creator of jobs. NFIB’s educational mission is to remind policymakers that small businesses are not smaller versions of bigger businesses; they have very different challenges and priorities.
National Federation of Independent Business/Oregon
3340 Commercial St. S.E. Suite 210
Salem, OR 97302
503-364-4450
