By Oregon Small Business Association,

Both Newport and Cannon Beach have 5% Meals Tax proposals on the November 2021 ballot. Newport’s tax is Measure 21-205 which would fund public safety, library, parks, facilities and other services. Cannon Beach’s tax measure is ballot 4-210 and it would fund the Fire District and a new City Hall.

Both taxes would severely hit restaurants at a terrible time. Restaurants are still recovering from a pandemic and depressed customer turn-out. Restaurants are struggling with a labor shortage, so severe, that many restaurants are being forced to to cut days and hours of operation — which means they are turning away customers. Larger chain restaurants are better able to handle the twin disaster, but the small family owned restaurants are more likely to close forever.

Both cities should wait until the pandemic is over to consider any new taxes.

Both cities should rather consider broad base taxes where everyone pays their fair share for the same public benefit.   Why should local small family restaurants be forced to bear the tax burden for say, public parks, and not other businesses?

High gas prices and inflation are already driving up costs for restaurants.  Many meal items are increasing by more than 10%.  If you add in the 5% Meals Sales Tax, then you are asking restaurants to  drive up prices 15% to pay for costs that did not exists months ago.

This is way too much.

Please reject Newport’s Measure 21-205 and Cannon Beach’s Measure 4-210 and help save not sink small family owned restaurants.

By Oregon Small Business Association

Portland worked hard to nab a location for the NCAA women’s Final Four but lost their bid as it was awarded to Tampa in 2025 and Phoenix in 2026.

In Baseball, Las Vegas looks like a winner—and Portland a loser—in the effort to recruit the Major League Oakland Athletics to the community to play games.

The A’s are looking to pay games in the Las Vegas Ballpark, home to a minor league affiliate, until a privately financed 54,000-seat ballpark is constructed at the Port of Oakland’s Howard Terminal—or until a permanent home is built in Nevada, according to the San Francisco Business Times.

The news comes as blow to the Portland Diamond Project, which was formed in 2017 by Craig Cheek, a former Nike executive, and former Portland Trail Blazers broadcaster Mike Barrett with the goal of recruiting a major league ball team to the Rose City. It has signed a deal with the Port of Portland to build a baseball stadium along the Willamette River, estimated to cost as much as $2 billion, according to KGW8.

Portland Diamond organizers had hoped to land the Athletics if the franchise decided to move from Oakland.

By Oregon Small Business Association

Popular fast-food chain, Taco Bell, is facing ingredient shortages. CBS News reports Taco Bell declined to specify what items were in short supply and how wide-ranging the problems might be, but said, “Due to national transportation delays happening throughout most of the industry, we may temporarily be out of some items…”   Taco Bell is one of the first big names to publicly respond to the ongoing national supply chain issues.

A local Portland area AM/PM store can be seen with empty shelves.  A nearby Panda Buffet is out of drink lids.  Some restaurants are taking items off their menu.

School cafeterias in some southern and midwestern states are also experiencing problems and are looking at cutting menu choices for kids as food suppliers face labor shortages and transportation challenges that are adding costs and limiting supplies.

Rising transportation costs, labor pressure and ingredient constraints have squeezed U.S. food makers and sellers for months as the U.S. economy rebounds from the Covid-19 pandemic and restaurants reopen for in-person dining. A recent poll shows 1.8 million Americans passed up employment opportunities in favor of unemployment benefits.

By Oregon Small Business Association

Employers are desperate for employees, and workers know it. There is rush to rejoin the workforce since Biden extended the $1,200/month jobless bonus effectively paying people more to stay home rather than work.

The average wage being requested on job search websites by has risen to $19.43 according to DirectlyApply.com.  A starting wage of $19.43 minimum reflects a new reality that job seekers are afforded.

The average hourly wage at food and drinking establishments soared to its highest level ever in March at $16.28 an hour, according to the U.S. Labor Department.

McDonald’s announced a 10 percent average increase at many of its restaurants, boosting hourly wages to between $11 and $17 an hour. White Castle and Chipotle increased to $15/hour.

The trend could pressure smaller businesses to raise wages simply to recruit enough workers but how will these businesses perform finally over the long run? That remains to be seen.

By Oregon Small Business Association,

UPDATE JULY 12, 2021: The $50 million small business tax barely passed the Senate on June 21st and House on June 24th.  It is now before the Governor’s desk.

Here is a technical description of the bill:

Senate Bill 139 raises small business taxes on family owned businesses by nearly 20%.  It raises the income rate for these family owned businesses (pass through entities, LLCs, partnerships) by $50 million.

Oregon small business owners are outraged that Oregon will be among the few states that will be raising taxes on small businesses in the pandemic thanks to SB 139 which passed the Senate. Despite record level budget surplus and opposition from both Democrat and Republican lawmakers, the small business tax still narrowly passed the Senate by one vote.

SB 139 raises $50 million in new taxes on small family-owned businesses and mostly on the small family-owned businesses. Many small shops will see their tax rate increase by 17%. The bill sets up a new complex “outside” employee requirement – so if your business is run by just your family and fellow owners your tax rates goes up by the 17%.

According to the Legislative Revenue office this bill targets around 2000 small mom & pop or start-up business owners who are unable, or have yet, to hire outside employees – targeting these smallest businesses to raise their tax rates.

Literally two businesses conducting the exact same activity, with the same revenue, with the same legal structure, would pay dramatically different tax rates – separated only by who meets this complex employee requirement scheme.

The $50 million tax comes at a time when State Government has been witnessing billions in surplus revenue from a rebounding economy and Federal relief funds.
Oregon has already lost over 1,000 restaurants in the pandemic. One closed restaurant made their Facebook announcement by saying, “It hurts to be a small business casualty of Covid-19…There’s a reason I can’t listen to the theme of cheers without crying my eyes out. It’s because I know exactly what it’s like to work in a place where people walk in the door and everybody knows their name.”  Although the lawmakers offered token tax relief for some businesses in the bill, the bill itself still raises $50 million in new taxes when it is fully implemented.

OSBA is asking everyone who cares about small family owned businesses to call the Governor and encourage her to veto SB 139.   The bill raises the tax rate set by a bipartisan group of lawmakers and Governor John Kitzhaber back in 2013.  In 2018 Governor Brown called a Special Session specifically to protect and expand the current tax rate for small business.   Now Governor is being asked to do the opposite by raising the tax rate on small businesses and during a pandemic.

Governor Kate Brown
Leave a message for her to Veto SB 139 the small business tax.
Phone: (503) 378-4582

bill language on SB 139 here.

By Oregon Small Business Association,

The vacancy rate in Portland’s central business district hit 19.4 percent during the first quarter of 2021, while the city’s overall vacancy is 14.7 percent. But real estate officials expressed optimism for improvement in the next year or two—especially when compared with the decline of the past year.

Numbers are still likely to look dim in the second quarter, but optimism and movement in the market will be reflected later in the year and during 2022 and 2023, according to Jacob Pavlik, Colliers real estate’s research manager, who was interviewed by the Portland Business Journal. The market’s net absorption shows a negative 900,476 square feet during the first quarter of the year, according to Colliers, far below the levels before onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Portland Tribune commented on Portland downtown decline, “State economist Josh Lehner pointed to the combination of business closures, less foot traffic and lower demand for office space as key factors in declining construction activity. Lehner said leading demand for office, retail, and leisure and hospitality space would need to rebound considerably for vacancy rates to decline and rents to increase. In his outlook for this year, Lehner noted that “it’s going to be a while before we build another office building,” and that Portland now ranks 66 out of 80 in national commercial real estate markets, according to a new report by PwC and the Urban Land Institute.”

By Oregon Small Business Association

Nike has sued MSCHF Product Studio Inc. of trademark infringement after the art collective modified black and red Nike Air Max 97 sneakers with a bronze pentagram charm and drop of human blood and sold them as Lil Nas X “Satan Shoes,” sparking a backlash on social media. The 666 modified Nikes sold out quickly with a price tag of more than $1,000 a pair. The lawsuit asks the court to stop MSCHF from fulfilling orders for the controversial sneakers, particularly after people on social media have threatened to boycott Nike over the Satan Shoes.

The company hasn’t named Lil Nas X as a party to the lawsuit even though the singer of “Old Town Road” collaborated with the art collective. Nike publicly stated it doesn’t have any relationship with MSCHF or Lil Nas X and never designed, released or endorsed the shoes that appear to promote Satanism. However, because the Nike swoosh logo is prominently displayed, the company contends it has suffered damages to its brand. MSCHF released “Jesus Shoes” in 2019.

By Oregon Small Business Association

Mr. Rogers died in 2003, but his music lives on—and even won a Grammy this year for a Portland company that reissued a compilation of his songs. Omnivore Recordings won the award in the Best Historical Album category for It’s Such a Good Feeling: The Best of Mister Rogers, which featured Fred Rogers singing songs aired on his children’s program during its three decades on television. Omnivore’s collection beat Bela Fleck’s Throw Down Your Heart: The Complete Africa Sessions, the super-deluxe edition of Prince’s 1999, and Nat King Cole’s Hittin’ the Ramp: The Early Years (1936 – 1943). According to Willamette Week, Cheryl Pawelski, whose husband Audrey Bilger is president of Reed College, founded reissue label, which next plans to release the earliest recording of poet Allen Ginsberg reading his famous tome “Howl” in 1956 at Reed College.

By Oregon Small Business Association

The U.S. Labor Department has ordered the owners of a Beaverton restaurant to pay more than $400,000 in back pay to its 39 employees.

Buffet Palace paid a flat monthly wage to its employees, no matter how many hours they worked, resulting at times in an hourly wage of $5, which is below the federal $7.25 minimum wage. The restaurant also paid no overtime for people working more than 40 hours a week, according to the Portland Business Journal.

An investigation by the Labor Department Wage and Hour Division discovered that the owners falsified payroll records.

The $417,737 judgment against Buffet Palace includes $16,000 in civil penalties.

By Oregon Small Business Association

Although Multnomah County restaurants area can reopen to serve customers indoors, many owners and operators hesitate to invest in rehiring workers and restocking kitchens when a spike in coronavirus cases could force them to shut their doors again. The uncertainty for restaurant owners, who have been forced twice in the past year to close to indoor dining, has them wondering whether they’ll earn enough by serving a reduced number of customers to cover their expenses, according to the Portland Business Journal.

Gov. Kate Brown stated that Multnomah, Washington, and Clackamas counties are all now at the moderate risk levels, meaning they can soon boost indoor dining capacity to 50 percent.

Annie Cuggino, chef at the high-end downtown Q restaurant, recently opened the restaurant for the third time. Rather than reopening now, the owners of Le Pigeon and Canard plan to keep operating in a popup tent at the Jupiter Next hotel until April. As case counts keep plunging and vaccinations increase, they’ll hire and train workers and then reopen as long as it’s safe for both customers and employees.

The owners of Holler, Bullard and Abigail Hall restaurants won’t reopen until it’s safe and, noting the slim margins in the restaurant business, want to make certain limits on seating will enable them to cover all their costs. They said they can’t justify the expense of opening a 70-seat restaurant at 25 percent capacity. They might survive at 50 percent capacity, but they don’t want to lay off employees again if the state orders another shutdown.

The RingSide restaurant created a backup plan to reopen the dining room gradually while continuing to fulfill to-go orders. The restaurant also has created an outdoor dining area to use if the state orders more closures.

Vanessa Preston, owner of Café Nell, told KPTV said her restaurant is ready for whatever happens, taking safety measures, limiting the number of customers, and sanitizing each table after every use.

Olympia Provisions nearby isn’t allowing customers inside the restaurant but only outside or in the atrium until all staff members are vaccinated. Executive chef Katherine Roe said they’re keeping maskless people away from their employees.

Although Multnomah County restaurants area can reopen to serve customers indoors, many owners and operators hesitate to invest in rehiring workers and restocking kitchens when a spike in coronavirus cases could force them to shut their doors again. The uncertainty for restaurant owners, who have been forced twice in the past year to close to indoor dining, has them wondering whether they’ll earn enough by serving a reduced number of customers to cover their expenses, according to the Portland Business Journal.

Gov. Kate Brown stated that Multnomah, Washington, and Clackamas counties are all now at the moderate risk levels, meaning they can soon boost indoor dining capacity to 50 percent.

Annie Cuggino, chef at the high-end downtown Q restaurant, recently opened the restaurant for the third time. Rather than reopening now, the owners of Le Pigeon and Canard plan to keep operating in a popup tent at the Jupiter Next hotel until April. As case counts keep plunging and vaccinations increase, they’ll hire and train workers and then reopen as long as it’s safe for both customers and employees.

The owners of Holler, Bullard and Abigail Hall restaurants won’t reopen until it’s safe and, noting the slim margins in the restaurant business, want to make certain limits on seating will enable them to cover all their costs. They said they can’t justify the expense of opening a 70-seat restaurant at 25 percent capacity. They might survive at 50 percent capacity, but they don’t want to lay off employees again if the state orders another shutdown.

The RingSide restaurant created a backup plan to reopen the dining room gradually while continuing to fulfill to-go orders. The restaurant also has created an outdoor dining area to use if the state orders more closures.

Vanessa Preston, owner of Café Nell, told KPTV said her restaurant is ready for whatever happens, taking safety measures, limiting the number of customers, and sanitizing each table after every use.

Olympia Provisions nearby isn’t allowing customers inside the restaurant but only outside or in the atrium until all staff members are vaccinated. Executive chef Katherine Roe said they’re keeping maskless people away from their employees.