I'm less concerned about Sam's dalliances than I am about the economic direction (down the toilet) he's taking the region. With every passing day, there is more evidence that the Portland Metro area is circling the drain.

I think we can all learn a bit from Nike Chairman Phil Knight who is speaking out against Measures 66 and 67. Quoting...

Forty-six years ago, when Mark Hatfield was governor, I started a small business in Oregon. In our first year, sales totaled $8,000. I am proud that it eventually became a major employer in the state.

It has been my hope that other entrepreneurs would similarly pursue their dreams in Oregon.

They won't.

Measures 66 and 67 should be labeled Oregon's Assisted Suicide Law II.

They will allow us to watch a state slowly killing itself.

They are anti-business, anti-success, anti-inspirational, anti-humanitarian, and most ironically, in the long run, they will deprive the state of tax revenue, not increase it.

The current state tax codes are all of those things as well. Measures 66 and 67 just take it up and over the top.

The state of Washington has no income tax. Its unemployment rate is 20 percent lower than Oregon's -- before 66 and 67. These measures would give Oregon the highest income tax rates in the country.

Reputable economists forecast 66 and 67 will cost the state thousands -- maybe tens of thousands -- of jobs, and that thousands of our most successful residents will leave the state.

We are way too anti-business as we are now. The state in past years was headquarters for The First National Bank, US Bank, Pacific Power, Willamette Industries, Georgia-Pacific, Jantzen, White Stag, G.I. Joe's, Monaco Coach, Meier & Frank, among many others. They are now headquartered elsewhere, are controlled by non-Oregonians or no longer exist.

One Fortune Global 500 company remains. But its founder and chairman is not merely an economic man. He has webs between his toes. But he, too, has some limits.

Do you really think any of these overseas "business trips" our leaders take will bear fruit? Can they get a company to move to anti-business Oregon without waiving taxes, passing even more burden onto the rest of us?

There are words to describe what we are doing with 66 and 67: It is called a death spiral.

Just to put a bit of Snark on last night's Snarl... here's a priceless picture of Mayor Sam's communications director tweeting about the newly issued "EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION & CALL-OUT SOLUTION" contract.

ThinkOregon has learned from a source deep inside the Mayor's office that the new computerized system will also be linked to visual warning systems on Portland's bike paths; light rail trains and to the FAA tower at PDX.

The new system will also send out Willamette River CSO alerts (a.k.a. "don't eat the finless brown trouts" warnings), but only if it's not raining (the alerts would be too frequent and the system is solar powered).

Since PDX, Light Rail and Salmon runs are involved, the contract will be a issued under a single source "no-bid" with matching, re-appropriated PERS and TriMet's healthcare funds.

http://thinkoregon.squarespace.com/news/2009/12/3...

This is a vexing problem indeed, but the government is the last place I'd turn for a solution. There is so much fraud, waste and abuse in government run programs... The Albany Democrat-Herald ran a nice editorial on this:

http://thinkoregon.squarespace.com/news/2009/12/2...

It's also disheartening when TriMet as a Rolls Royce healthcare plan that we private-sector folks will never dream of having:

http://thinkoregon.squarespace.com/news/2009/12/2...

And finally, it shocked me to find out that -- per the State of Oregon -- Oregon's government employees are paid better than their private sector counterparts, largely because of healthcare benefits:

http://thinkoregon.squarespace.com/news/2009/12/1...

Oregon lost another 4,600 jobs in November. Add in these 270 workers in Albany plus Integra Telecom, Oregon's largest privately held high-tech employer, shed 4% of its workforce yesterday. Business as usual must end.

Former Portland Trailblazer Chris Dudley (not endorsing him btw) hit all the right notes in his recent video introductions:

http://thinkoregon.squarespace.com/news/2009/12/1...

http://thinkoregon.squarespace.com/news/2009/12/1...

RalphC ... we're in complete agreement. Bureau of Labor Statistics U-6 measures the un- and underemployment at 20.2 percent in Oregon, but as you suggest there are another couple of percentage points on top of that. Whatever the real figure, one-in-five Oregonians not being able to adequately provide for themselves and their families is a staggering number.

One-in-five Oregonians don't have a full-time job right now that will support a family. The fact that the ranks of food stamp recipients have grown to 650,000 is just more evidence that we need to focus every resource at our disposal on job creation.

What I found most chilling in this debate was The Oregonian Editorial that ran this weekend. They came off like the Inquisition. Talk about stifling civil discourse. The Wall Street Journal on the other hand has been quite engaged. Check out the blog.

Jon Stewart did a better job reporting on the story. Did you notice that Al Gore cancels his trip to Copenhagen at the last minute?