Fair Process for Local Business
This political season there is the need to shift our thinking about our economy. The future is local. Simple, clear yet encompassing. It is time to demand more of our local elected officials. At this moment in time, when it comes to our economy, size matters less than location and stability. Portland needs to stop talking about being a fair, just and equitable community and start acting like one. As systems continue to fracture at the national level, ==> creating stress factors at the state level means that ==> the burden ends up on the local community. As a result, building our local economic infrastructure becomes more important than ever.
When I launched this writing project just over a year ago, my first article was a reflection of growing up in a small town in the 1960s and 1970s (1). In that article, I outlined four principles that created a strong local economy. 1) fostering connections between community members, 2) seeing the system of business, public spaces, and community infrastructure, 3) maintaining civic pride as a non-negotiable, and 4) building a vision for a sustainable future then working with grit to achieve that vision.
Which brings us to our current political environment in Portland,Oregon. Portland is fortunate to have large local companies that are employment and revenue drivers who, in the best-case scenario, demand our respect. We need these larger corporate employers. We do. Attracting and retaining corporations with Portland values is important. However, there are no handful of magic corporations, start-ups, or equity partners that will prop up our economy, provide living wage jobs, or inspire us to greatness.
But our economy must be inherently small, local and resilient. Roughly three-quarters of Portland-area businesses are micro businesses with fewer than 10 employees, and more than 90% have fewer than 50 employees. Micro businesses are not a niche constituency—they constitute most of the business establishments that populate Portland’s neighborhood commercial districts, service sector, and manufacturing.
Yet many small businesses express deep dissatisfaction with the city council understanding of small businesses, the lack of systemic investment in the overlapping systems —taxes, permitting, public-space conditions, transit, public safety, regulation, and responsiveness. We need to design systems around the viability of very small firms.
Our local economy needs to be built business district by business district in a systematic approach. A strong local economy is not created by isolated grants, incentives, or business programs. A strong local economy emerges from the intersections of businesses, public spaces, infrastructure, civic institutions, and the relationships among the people who use them. When policy is built around that system, small businesses are not simply recipients of help; they are part of the connective tissue that creates community, activates public spaces, reinforces civic pride, and gives residents a reason to invest emotionally and economically in the place we call home.
When we discuss small businesses, there are some council members that paternalistically believe that ideological purity makes them “small-business avengers.” Unfortunately their approach treats small businesses mainly as beneficiaries of their ideological approach to public policy. Ideology takes the lead, and small-businesses are the subordinate recipients of the broader policies the elected officials deem effective. Tax the rich, increase labor standards arbitrarily, heck even bathroom signage are policy “slogans” imposed on micro and small businesses.
While the self-identified progressive caucus (peacock) wing of city council are using use a “tax the rich” slogan to appeal to their base just before the election, the current hysteria appears to be Kabuki theatre rather than a serious initiative. The intent is to jam it through city council or, at least, force members to choose artificial sides. The idea is that taxing the rich will avenge small businesses is one more random action by ill-informed council members. It is being argued that the net effect of the Fair Tax is that business owners might save $900 in taxes. But when the cost for a restaurant to place curbside seating spanning three parking spaces in Portland ranges from $2,000 to $4,100 per year in city permit fees, why not focus on eliminating that permit fees instead, which strengthens neighborhood walkability and be worth 2-4 times the savings for the business owner?
A new approach to growing our local economy must be embraced by the next city council. This approach sees supporting small-business viability as a goal that should shape progressive policies. This approach to thinking about taxes, fees, permitting, regulation, storefront conditions, and city responsiveness, starts with asking business owners how to advance equity without making it harder for small firms to survive and grow. Because this approach is based on engagement and partnership, it is more concrete and may also offer more room for cross-ideological consensus. My guess is that, in that fair process involving broad representation by micro and small business, a discussion of progressive taxation would still emerge as one of several priorities. My point is that how we get there and how any one policy connects to a larger strategy trumps random acts of ideological policy makers. We don’t need small business avengers we need small business partners.
Note: to District 3 and 4 voters? You hold the shape of the next two years. Rank partners not ideological avengers.
References:
1) Fulop, M, (September 4, 2025) Seeds of community change.
2) EcoNorthwest (August 2023) State of Small Business Report.
