Oregon’s “leaders” ~~ and a majority of voters ~~ have played their opposition to Trump to the hilt. That the barrel of the gun is turned back on them does not seem to have struck home yet.
What Oregon’s Legislature Really Tells Us About Leadership
Mark Hester’s essay, “Reversing Oregon’s Economic Slide Requires Better Leadership,” rightly critiques the state’s long-standing reliance on a few economic pillars—Nike and Intel—at the expense of broader growth. But this isn’t a problem of inaction; rather, it’s a problem of misdirected action under Governor Tina Kotek and her Democratic-led legislature.
Progressive Ideological Priorities—Legislated, Not Earned
In 2023, the legislature passed HB 2002, a sweeping expansion of gender-affirming care coverage in Oregon. The law mandates insurance coverage for procedures such as facial feminization, hair removal, and tracheal shaves, and includes a “shield law” protecting providers from out-of-state disciplinary actions. Yet HB 2002 did not advance gay or lesbian rights; it expanded irreversible gender interventions for minors and adults without parental consent. Many within Oregon’s gay and lesbian communities argue it risks funneling proto-gay youth into the gender-affirmation system under ideological pressure, all while being billed rhetorically as a broad LGBTQ+ victory.
This scenario illustrates how Oregon’s political leadership is deeply invested in identity-driven legislation—and willing to overhaul medical-ethical norms—rather than building economic capacity or workforce resilience.
Union-Centric Lawmaking
During both legislative sessions, Kotek and her allies prioritized public-sector union interests. Key measures included widening prevailing wage requirements, preserving automatic union dues deductions, expanding unemployment benefits for striking workers, and shielding public employees from repayment mandates when overpayment occurs. In 2025, a law requiring landlords to conduct private well-water testing under the guise of public health shifted enforcement burdens onto individuals—while placating tenant-advocacy groups aligned with unions.
These moves disproportionately benefit organized government employees, with no direct return in job creation or economic expansion. Instead, they reinforce an entrenched public-sector base.
Housing Reform: Announced Boldly, Executed Poorly
Nowhere is the gap between rhetoric and execution more apparent than in Governor Kotek’s high-profile housing production pledge. In early 2023, she set a statewide target of 36,000 new homes per year—a figure well above current annual production levels and presented as essential to solving Oregon’s worsening affordability crisis. Yet the effort quickly stalled.
Instead of aligning incentives with the private sector—developers, builders, buyers, lenders, and suppliers—the plan became bogged down in the formation of a Housing Production Advisory Council and ultimately proposed the creation of yet another bureaucratic oversight entity, the Oregon Housing Accountability Office. Rather than mobilize the economic actors who create and fund housing, the plan relies heavily on regulatory penalties for cities and towns that fail to meet state-defined benchmarks for land-use streamlining. It’s a classic example of upstream control without downstream buy-in.
Two years later, the promised acceleration in housing production has not materialized, and the machinery meant to implement the governor’s vision is only now being stood up. Without meaningful incentives for those who actually finance and build homes, the plan—however well-intentioned—is structurally doomed to fall short.
Infrastructure Neglected, Commissions Created
Meanwhile, both the 2023 and 2025 sessions failed to pass any transformative infrastructure or economic diversification bills. In 2025, an $11.7 billion transportation package collapsed in cliffhanger negotiations. What did pass, by contrast, were advisory boards, technical planning bodies, and one-off regulatory tweaks—initiatives that signal intent more than actual delivery.
This reflects a broader governance pattern under Kotek: legislation for optics and structure, not for action and impact.
Betting the Farm on Intel—Again
In 2023, the legislature adopted SB 4, a sweeping incentive bill setting aside $210 million in grants and loans to attract semiconductor investment, chiefly for Intel. It even granted the governor temporary authority to override urban growth boundaries to accommodate fab sites. The CHIPS-focused strategy succeeded in attracting roughly $1.8 billion in federal funding for Intel’s Hillsboro facility.
Governor Kotek heralded this as a victory, but it has failed to catalyze new growth. Intel recently announced another 2,392 layoffs in Oregon, contributing to over 5,400 job losses in the state since 2024. Despite hundreds of millions in public subsidy, Intel’s continued retrenchment underscores Oregon’s deep and risky dependence on a single, faltering employer.
Oregon today is not suffering from apathy—it’s suffering from purposeful misalignment. Legislative energy is being spent on gender ideology, union benefits, and symbolic governance rather than economic dynamism, infrastructure renewal, or strategic investment. Even when the state sets worthy goals, as with housing production, it undermines them through over-centralized planning and a failure to engage the actors who actually deliver results.
Mark Hester is right: Oregon needs better leadership. But what it really needs is leadership that:
Sees economic health as a purpose in itself, not a byproduct of cultural signaling.
Balances private-sector innovation with progressive goals instead of treating them as adversarial.
Understands that jobs, investment, and housing require infrastructure, capital, and coherent policy—backed by incentives, not just mandates.
Until that kind of leadership arrives, Oregon’s government will remain busy, active, and highly ideological—but still economically stalled.
I want to think that many Oregonians would respond positively to strong political leaders who champion economic development and diversification with a new message that rejects failed progressive ideas.
A lot of left the state. A lot of wealthy Oregonians who could fund a set or even 1 single gubernatorial candidate seem to left the state or politically aligned to the doom loop like Uncle Phil.
Speaking of Uncle Phil he declined to purchase or enter a group to buy the Portland Trailblazers. Probably due to the stock being worth half what it was a few years ago. Rumor is no local buyer or group of people are interested in keeping the Trialblazers in Portland. That says alot about lack of buy in to Portland or Oregon. I suspect their exodus will be to Seattle and a new Trailbalzers team or Las Vegas maybe even San Diego or Anaheim.
I don’t care about the Blazers but as someone who is from a nba small market town Sacramento I saw how the community and its leaders were able to muster up much smaller set of resources behind leadership that kept the team in Sacramento. I see no such movement in Portland or Oregon. I see a doom loop and I am comparing it to Sacramento a cow town in comparison.
The World Champion Oklahoma City Thunder are already planning and preparing to build a new billion dollar arena in Oklahoma City. Another small cow town in comparison. This was done in a fast streamlined way. The aging Rose Garden in comparison is far older where the Thunder play currently. A lot of talk of a baseball park that will never happen and a NBA team leaving the market. Oregon and Portland specifically has no buy in and that’s in comparison to Oklahoma City and Sacramento. But that is the state we are in.
It's pathetic and embarrassing how Portland's naive mayor, the rudderless Oregon legislature and the newspaper with two names are prostituting themselves to lure billionaire owners and multi-millionaire players to the Rose City. Their harebrained scheme to repay stadium costs with taxes on the team's payroll would never pan out, likely leaving taxpayers on the hook. If it ever got that far, Portland would be saddled with a stadium in a worse transportation bottleneck than the Rose Garden. Considering that the area around the site of the proposed stadium is an economic dead zone, maybe they could level the buildings and turn that part of the city into a parking lot for MLB fans. One thing that's certain is that the booster industrial complex would make out like bandits either way.
I find it interesting that the two "biggest" companies in Oregon make most, if not all, their products overseas. Exploiting low paid foreign labor is great for the head mucky-mucks, but it doesn't do much for the citizens of Oregon.
Regardless of your views on use of overseas labor, Intel and Nike both employ thousands in Oregon and many of the Intel jobs are manufacturing jobs. The companies do a lot for Oregon.
I'm not sure whether the newspapers have ever written about it since I was there. I tried to expose it by writing to Blumenauer, but he never does anything (or didn't). Then I gave up.
Would be good to do an expose on it if it is still happening.
On the one hand they pay very well for those people who do work there -- and there are many high paying jobs for administrators, managers, developers, marketers, etc.
SADLY, in the case of Nike (and I suspect probably Intel as well) is that they provide special treatment to East Indian foreign-labor companies like WIPRO, etc. In fact, if you are a citizen and a software developer but not an employee, but work freelance or for an agency or other company as a contractor at Nike -- you can only work for 9 months out of the year, and then must wait another 3 months before re applying for a new job. NOT the case with WIPRO employees (or what Indian employment agency they are using). Who get to work 12 months out of the year, year after year, and usually most of the contractors on H-1B visas apply and get granted permanent residency, thus continuing to work under WIPRO but 12 months out of the year...
In short, NIKE does not favor citizens in their headquarters.
I know these things for a fact having worked there 10 years ago for many years (as a contractor). Maybe things have changed, but I suspect if they have, they have changed for the worse.
I would say Colorado is having problems recently but certainly has alot more vibrant small businesses and development. Oregon is failing because the only place in Oregon that development is growing is the destruction of small family farms and rural communities in Hillsboro to take advantage of the connection to overseas fiber optic networks. Otherwise new construction is non existent. If you’re not growing your shrinking. The drug cartels that Tina counted on for any new business in Oregon didn’t work out too well.
I do have to say though that the Oregon government *has* done something right (surprisingly) recently (since at least 2008 when I was last laid off) and that is the Self Employed Assistance Program (SEAP) -- which means if you qualify for unemployment, you can instead apply for the SEAP if you have an idea to start a new business (or have an existing business you wish to build) and you are self-employed.
Whether their oversight is good enough once you are accepted is another question. But assuming people who apply for the program actually work their business as expected -- it's a good plan.
You don't have to look for a job, and you don't have to deduct any money your business makes each week.
“But I’m even less a fan of state officials who rail about something they can’t change while ignoring more immediate threats that they can address.”
well spoken
Oregon’s “leaders” ~~ and a majority of voters ~~ have played their opposition to Trump to the hilt. That the barrel of the gun is turned back on them does not seem to have struck home yet.
What Oregon’s Legislature Really Tells Us About Leadership
Mark Hester’s essay, “Reversing Oregon’s Economic Slide Requires Better Leadership,” rightly critiques the state’s long-standing reliance on a few economic pillars—Nike and Intel—at the expense of broader growth. But this isn’t a problem of inaction; rather, it’s a problem of misdirected action under Governor Tina Kotek and her Democratic-led legislature.
Progressive Ideological Priorities—Legislated, Not Earned
In 2023, the legislature passed HB 2002, a sweeping expansion of gender-affirming care coverage in Oregon. The law mandates insurance coverage for procedures such as facial feminization, hair removal, and tracheal shaves, and includes a “shield law” protecting providers from out-of-state disciplinary actions. Yet HB 2002 did not advance gay or lesbian rights; it expanded irreversible gender interventions for minors and adults without parental consent. Many within Oregon’s gay and lesbian communities argue it risks funneling proto-gay youth into the gender-affirmation system under ideological pressure, all while being billed rhetorically as a broad LGBTQ+ victory.
This scenario illustrates how Oregon’s political leadership is deeply invested in identity-driven legislation—and willing to overhaul medical-ethical norms—rather than building economic capacity or workforce resilience.
Union-Centric Lawmaking
During both legislative sessions, Kotek and her allies prioritized public-sector union interests. Key measures included widening prevailing wage requirements, preserving automatic union dues deductions, expanding unemployment benefits for striking workers, and shielding public employees from repayment mandates when overpayment occurs. In 2025, a law requiring landlords to conduct private well-water testing under the guise of public health shifted enforcement burdens onto individuals—while placating tenant-advocacy groups aligned with unions.
These moves disproportionately benefit organized government employees, with no direct return in job creation or economic expansion. Instead, they reinforce an entrenched public-sector base.
Housing Reform: Announced Boldly, Executed Poorly
Nowhere is the gap between rhetoric and execution more apparent than in Governor Kotek’s high-profile housing production pledge. In early 2023, she set a statewide target of 36,000 new homes per year—a figure well above current annual production levels and presented as essential to solving Oregon’s worsening affordability crisis. Yet the effort quickly stalled.
Instead of aligning incentives with the private sector—developers, builders, buyers, lenders, and suppliers—the plan became bogged down in the formation of a Housing Production Advisory Council and ultimately proposed the creation of yet another bureaucratic oversight entity, the Oregon Housing Accountability Office. Rather than mobilize the economic actors who create and fund housing, the plan relies heavily on regulatory penalties for cities and towns that fail to meet state-defined benchmarks for land-use streamlining. It’s a classic example of upstream control without downstream buy-in.
Two years later, the promised acceleration in housing production has not materialized, and the machinery meant to implement the governor’s vision is only now being stood up. Without meaningful incentives for those who actually finance and build homes, the plan—however well-intentioned—is structurally doomed to fall short.
Infrastructure Neglected, Commissions Created
Meanwhile, both the 2023 and 2025 sessions failed to pass any transformative infrastructure or economic diversification bills. In 2025, an $11.7 billion transportation package collapsed in cliffhanger negotiations. What did pass, by contrast, were advisory boards, technical planning bodies, and one-off regulatory tweaks—initiatives that signal intent more than actual delivery.
This reflects a broader governance pattern under Kotek: legislation for optics and structure, not for action and impact.
Betting the Farm on Intel—Again
In 2023, the legislature adopted SB 4, a sweeping incentive bill setting aside $210 million in grants and loans to attract semiconductor investment, chiefly for Intel. It even granted the governor temporary authority to override urban growth boundaries to accommodate fab sites. The CHIPS-focused strategy succeeded in attracting roughly $1.8 billion in federal funding for Intel’s Hillsboro facility.
Governor Kotek heralded this as a victory, but it has failed to catalyze new growth. Intel recently announced another 2,392 layoffs in Oregon, contributing to over 5,400 job losses in the state since 2024. Despite hundreds of millions in public subsidy, Intel’s continued retrenchment underscores Oregon’s deep and risky dependence on a single, faltering employer.
Oregon today is not suffering from apathy—it’s suffering from purposeful misalignment. Legislative energy is being spent on gender ideology, union benefits, and symbolic governance rather than economic dynamism, infrastructure renewal, or strategic investment. Even when the state sets worthy goals, as with housing production, it undermines them through over-centralized planning and a failure to engage the actors who actually deliver results.
Mark Hester is right: Oregon needs better leadership. But what it really needs is leadership that:
Sees economic health as a purpose in itself, not a byproduct of cultural signaling.
Balances private-sector innovation with progressive goals instead of treating them as adversarial.
Understands that jobs, investment, and housing require infrastructure, capital, and coherent policy—backed by incentives, not just mandates.
Until that kind of leadership arrives, Oregon’s government will remain busy, active, and highly ideological—but still economically stalled.
What Oregon needs is an electorate that finally refuses to double down on failure. I don't see that any time soon.
I want to think that many Oregonians would respond positively to strong political leaders who champion economic development and diversification with a new message that rejects failed progressive ideas.
Who is going to elect them
Centrists who do not feel represented by extremes at both ends of the spectrum. But I get your point.
A lot of left the state. A lot of wealthy Oregonians who could fund a set or even 1 single gubernatorial candidate seem to left the state or politically aligned to the doom loop like Uncle Phil.
Speaking of Uncle Phil he declined to purchase or enter a group to buy the Portland Trailblazers. Probably due to the stock being worth half what it was a few years ago. Rumor is no local buyer or group of people are interested in keeping the Trialblazers in Portland. That says alot about lack of buy in to Portland or Oregon. I suspect their exodus will be to Seattle and a new Trailbalzers team or Las Vegas maybe even San Diego or Anaheim.
I don’t care about the Blazers but as someone who is from a nba small market town Sacramento I saw how the community and its leaders were able to muster up much smaller set of resources behind leadership that kept the team in Sacramento. I see no such movement in Portland or Oregon. I see a doom loop and I am comparing it to Sacramento a cow town in comparison.
The World Champion Oklahoma City Thunder are already planning and preparing to build a new billion dollar arena in Oklahoma City. Another small cow town in comparison. This was done in a fast streamlined way. The aging Rose Garden in comparison is far older where the Thunder play currently. A lot of talk of a baseball park that will never happen and a NBA team leaving the market. Oregon and Portland specifically has no buy in and that’s in comparison to Oklahoma City and Sacramento. But that is the state we are in.
It's pathetic and embarrassing how Portland's naive mayor, the rudderless Oregon legislature and the newspaper with two names are prostituting themselves to lure billionaire owners and multi-millionaire players to the Rose City. Their harebrained scheme to repay stadium costs with taxes on the team's payroll would never pan out, likely leaving taxpayers on the hook. If it ever got that far, Portland would be saddled with a stadium in a worse transportation bottleneck than the Rose Garden. Considering that the area around the site of the proposed stadium is an economic dead zone, maybe they could level the buildings and turn that part of the city into a parking lot for MLB fans. One thing that's certain is that the booster industrial complex would make out like bandits either way.
You forgot the entire timber industry and Dutch Bros. The only jobs that matter are Portland jobs.
I find it interesting that the two "biggest" companies in Oregon make most, if not all, their products overseas. Exploiting low paid foreign labor is great for the head mucky-mucks, but it doesn't do much for the citizens of Oregon.
Regardless of your views on use of overseas labor, Intel and Nike both employ thousands in Oregon and many of the Intel jobs are manufacturing jobs. The companies do a lot for Oregon.
Yes, but see my comment before yours.
I'm not sure whether the newspapers have ever written about it since I was there. I tried to expose it by writing to Blumenauer, but he never does anything (or didn't). Then I gave up.
Would be good to do an expose on it if it is still happening.
On the one hand they pay very well for those people who do work there -- and there are many high paying jobs for administrators, managers, developers, marketers, etc.
SADLY, in the case of Nike (and I suspect probably Intel as well) is that they provide special treatment to East Indian foreign-labor companies like WIPRO, etc. In fact, if you are a citizen and a software developer but not an employee, but work freelance or for an agency or other company as a contractor at Nike -- you can only work for 9 months out of the year, and then must wait another 3 months before re applying for a new job. NOT the case with WIPRO employees (or what Indian employment agency they are using). Who get to work 12 months out of the year, year after year, and usually most of the contractors on H-1B visas apply and get granted permanent residency, thus continuing to work under WIPRO but 12 months out of the year...
In short, NIKE does not favor citizens in their headquarters.
I know these things for a fact having worked there 10 years ago for many years (as a contractor). Maybe things have changed, but I suspect if they have, they have changed for the worse.
I would say Colorado is having problems recently but certainly has alot more vibrant small businesses and development. Oregon is failing because the only place in Oregon that development is growing is the destruction of small family farms and rural communities in Hillsboro to take advantage of the connection to overseas fiber optic networks. Otherwise new construction is non existent. If you’re not growing your shrinking. The drug cartels that Tina counted on for any new business in Oregon didn’t work out too well.
Good article. Thank you for writing it.
I do have to say though that the Oregon government *has* done something right (surprisingly) recently (since at least 2008 when I was last laid off) and that is the Self Employed Assistance Program (SEAP) -- which means if you qualify for unemployment, you can instead apply for the SEAP if you have an idea to start a new business (or have an existing business you wish to build) and you are self-employed.
Whether their oversight is good enough once you are accepted is another question. But assuming people who apply for the program actually work their business as expected -- it's a good plan.
You don't have to look for a job, and you don't have to deduct any money your business makes each week.