Illinois Valley News

Ron Fields launched his Fields Home Improvement store in Murphy in 1977, completely from scratch.

“I literally started my business with a $100 bill,“ Fields said. “It was my $100 bill. I didn“t borrow it.“

Fields“ business is registered with the state as a “C“ corporation. As such, he said he has been adversely affected by the passage earlier this year of measures 66 and 67, which raised taxes on some businesses and individuals.

During the campaign on the measures, Fields was quite vocal in stating his opposition. In fact, he had signs posted in the store“s entrance stating as much.

But since the measures passed, Fields has had to lay off two employees to pay for the retroactive tax increase. This was despite the fact that last winter was the worst he“s had in his more than 30 years of being in business.

“We still had to pay a sizeable amount due to our gross sales,“ Fields said. “It really makes you look at your business, figure out where to cut and where to save.“

Fields“ story is exactly the kind that J.L. Wilson is looking to share. He is the vice president of Salem-based Associated Oregon Industries (AOI), which helped lead the campaign to defeat the tax measures.

AOI is among many similar groups that comprise the Alliance of Oregon“s Business Associations. Its Website, oregontaxresponse.com, is soliciting tales from business owners about how the tax measures have hampered their operations.

“The issue is not that the stories are out there, it“s trying to get them into our collection point and cast the net out wide enough that people know about it. That“s our challenge,“ Wilson said.

“But we want to do it in a way that does not deter people from coming into the state and investing.“

Fields noted that his company currently has 25 employees, down from 32 in 2007. Sales were off 30 percent last year, he said, and the company lost money.

Despite that, Fields said that he still had to pay “substantial“ retroactive taxes. He said that the company always has been debt-free, but would really be hurting if he had to borrow money to keep it running.

“It“s an insult to businesses for the hard work that we put in,“ Fields said. “The more we do, the more we get hammered.“

Wilson said that the tax increases are prompting many “C“ corporations to examining reorganizing into “S“ corporations.

“There are law firms advising their clients not to be “C“ corps in Oregon,“ he said. “That“s the biggest thing that“s happening.“

Advertisements also are being run in the Portland media market urging companies to take advantage of Washington state, Wilson said, as that state has no capital gains tax. Oregon“s rate is 11 percent, among the highest in the nation.

“There is a lot of Oregon versus Washington comparisons going on in this part of the state,“ Wilson said.

He continued that a “common theme“ these days is that business owners are making decisions about potentially selling their assets.

“We“ve gotten a steady drumbeat of stories of people relocating, and more importantly, we have businesses wanting to sell and relocating to other states, which is exactly what we said the outcome would be,“ he said.

“People are choosing to grow their businesses elsewhere. They will keep a presence in Oregon, but the growth that was going to occur here will occur somewhere else.“

Fields said that aside from the two layoffs, he“s tried to find other ways of cutting costs. Having fewer employees means that the company“s remaining workers have much more to do, he added.

An expansion project at the store could result in some additional hiring, Fields said, but all that “depends on how the economy“s going.“

Although it may be premature to say that there is any kind of economic recovery occurring, Fields said that he remains cautiously optimistic.

“I have a better feeling about this year,“ he said.

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