The Portland City Council voted to change the borders of a state enterprise zone to keep Rentrak Corp. from moving to Vancouver.
The Portland City Council voted to change the borders of a state enterprise zone to keep Rentrak Corp. from moving to Vancouver.
This allows Rentrak to participate in state tax credit programs, potentially saving the company $5 million over the next 5 years.
In 2005, Oregon and Portland gave Rentrak over $900,000 in no-interest loans and grants when the company first threatened to leave the state.
As Rentrak has now proven twice, companies that make a credible threat to move can extract significant concessions from Oregon politicians. In the face of persistent double-digit unemployment, it’s hard to blame public officials for emptying their goody bags of incentives to retain jobs. On the other hand, every package of corporate tax breaks worsens the state’s gaping $3.5 billion budget hole.
Outgoing Gov. Ted Kulongoski helped make the Rentrak tax breaks happen as one of his last official duties — knowing full well the impact on the state’s painful bottom line.
“Once you set up tax breaks, there is less revenue coming into the general fund, there’s no doubt about that,” Kulongoski said. “But no one wants to be a position of having let 230 jobs walk across the river. You want to know the hardest issue? You do this for Rentrak, what do you say to the next company?”
Read more at OregonLive.com.
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