Oregon Dems: businesses are bad

by NW Spotlight

A legislative update newsletter from Rep. Tobias Read (D-Beaverton) this week gives a glimpse into how Oregon Democrats view businesses. The subject line of the email is “Can business do good, too?”

Wow! So businesses don’t have to be just inherently bad? They can “do good, too?”

For Oregon Democrats, apparently just providing jobs and incomes to Oregonians, using profits to pay investors like the PERS fund, providing goods and services, and paying a third of the state taxes and half of local taxes in Oregon isn’t enough. Those things are “bad”.

In order to give Oregon businesses a chance to be “good, too” Oregon Democrats have passed into law HB 2296 which creates “a new Oregon business option called ‘benefit corporations.'” Rep. Read writes that he “championed this bill, together with my co-chief sponsor, Representative Jules Bailey and Secretary of State Kate Brown, because it will help attract socially conscious entrepreneurs to Oregon.”

Rep. Read’s newsletter says this about benefit corporations “It’s a new way to organize those for-profit companies that also create a public good. So, in addition to making a profit, a benefit corporation might also be designed to improve the environment, educate young people, reduce energy consumption… anything that contributes to the public’s benefit.”

In the mind of Oregon Democrats, there is now a way for for-profit companies to “also [finally!] “create a public good,” to (finally!) contribute to the public’s benefit. Because, again, just providing jobs and incomes to Oregonians, using profits to pay investors like the PERS fund, providing goods and services, and paying a third of the state taxes and half of local taxes in Oregon isn’t enough – those things apparently aren’t “good” and don’t contribute to “the public’s benefit”.