12/22/2025
Oregon’s Decline Is Not an Accident - It Is the Result of Leadership Choices
The Oregon Business Plan has released a report that should end any debate about where Oregon stands. The data is damning - and it comes from a source that is typically pragmatic, business-oriented, and often aligned with Democratic leadership. This is not a partisan attack. It is a warning backed by facts.
Oregon’s economy is losing ground. Job growth is lagging behind the nation. Employers are choosing to expand in other states. People are leaving or choosing not to move here at all. Housing is unaffordable for working families. Schools are failing to prepare students for the workforce. Wildfires are more destructive and more expensive each year. And Oregon’s tax and regulatory environment has become increasingly unstable and hostile to investment.
These outcomes did not appear overnight - and they are not the result of outside forces. They are the predictable consequence of policy decisions made by governors and legislators over the last decade and more.
For decades, businesses and business organizations have warned state leaders to do no harm - to stop layering instability onto an already challenging environment and to focus on policies that allow employers to grow and create jobs. Those warnings were repeatedly ignored. Instead, legislative and executive leadership prioritized unions, extreme environmentalists, special interest groups, and the non-profit industrial complex - often at the direct expense of Oregon’s private-sector economy.
The result is exactly what anyone paying attention predicted. When the governor’s office and the Legislature pursue a non-business agenda, the outcome is a non-business economy. This is not ideological. It's not theoretical. It’s not rocket science.
The Oregon Business Plan report lays out the consequences in unmistakable terms:
• Oregon is falling behind competing states in job creation and income growth.
• Housing shortages and land-use barriers are choking affordability and workforce availability.
• Education outcomes are failing to meet the needs of students or employers.
• Forest mismanagement is increasing wildfire risk and costs.
• Unstable and punitive tax policies are driving investment elsewhere.
Most Oregonians will never read this report, but they are already living with its findings. Communities feel it in lost jobs, rising costs, and fewer opportunities for the next generation. This is what happens when economic competitiveness is treated as optional.
The solutions are not radical. They are practical and long overdue: reform housing and land-use policies, modernize economic development, demand real accountability in education, actively manage forests, and restore tax and regulation stability. What is radical is continuing to defend the status quo.
The bottom line:
Oregon’s current trajectory is the direct result of leadership choices. It’s not a lack of information, not a lack of warnings, and not a lack of alternatives. The data is clear, the consequences are real, and the time for excuses has passed. If Oregon is going to become a more prosperous state for all Oregonians, it will require new priorities and the leaders willing to change course.
The warning signs have been flashing. Ignoring them has been a choice.
Read the full report here:
https://oregonbusinessplan.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Oregons-Choice-Agenda-December-2025.pdf
