Second major beer festival closes

By Taxpayers Association of Oregon
OregonWatchdog.com

The Bend Brewfest has canceled for the second year in a row, this time having to issue refunds to ticket buyers.

Bend Brewfest organizers said it was “various challenges” and later said there were “too many hurdles”.

We can easily estimate what those “challenges” and “hurdles” are:

– High costs:  Oregon is top ten highest cost-of-living state. Notice below, how liberal Blue states fare the worst.

– High taxes and fees: Oregon politicians have passed dozens of new taxes and fees during the pandemic.   This adds cost to putting on an event and takes away from people’s purchasing power to attend events.  Here are the fees Oregon lawmakers passed last year:

– High utility costs: There’s been double digit utility bill increases, due in part, to Oregon’s heavy handed environmental regulations.

– High rental costs: Oregon’s soaring housing costs (among nation’s worst) mean that business property prices increase too, which means rental space prices increase as well.  Those high property costs are a direct result of punishing land-use laws that block much of the new housing that is needed.

When you add these costs together, people pull back from spending.  When people pull back, they first thing they stop spending is dining and entertainment.

The Oregon Brewer’s Festival closed due to these types of costs.

Too bad this has happened, since Bend Brewfest has raised nearly $150,000 for charity.   Oregon businesses can only raise money for charity from their prosperity.  Yet, politicians reserve the prosperity for themselves when they raise taxes on businesses.

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