NEWS UPDATE FROM STATE REPRESENTATIVE DAVID GOMBERG: Small Business, Carp, and Crabs

By Representative David Gomberg, House District 10

Hello Neighbors and Friends,

Oregonians are starting new small businesses. Especially in the wake of the pandemic, more of us are staying home, caring for our kids, and using our entrepreneurial creativity to build something of our own.

Managing our own business for over 35 years, Susan and I found consistently that the main challenges were where to locate, how to find employees, and where to get the money needed to cover start-up costs, expand, or survive during the lean months. Most small firms rely on savings, relatives, or credit cards.

Money is a problem and last session, Oregon lawmakers approved a bill expanding access to capital for companies that are too new or too risky to qualify for conventional bank loans. Under the bill, Business Oregon would raise the cap on direct loans to startups through its Entrepreneurial Development Loan Fund to $1 million, up from the current, temporary limit of $250,000. Business Oregon is the state’s economic development agency.

Supply chain shortages, rising wages, and growing real estate costs have added up for small businesses still weathering the pandemic. The measure expands loan eligibility to businesses with less than $1.5 million in revenue or fewer than 25 employees.

This month there was more good news for small business as Oregon received up to $83.5 million to promote small business growth and entrepreneurship through the American Rescue Plan. We will split this $83.5 million between innovative companies in their early stages and small local retail and manufacturing businesses that need help with start-up or expansion costs. The plan aims to reduce barriers to capital for traditionally underserved communities, including those in rural areas.

Oregon is a small-business state. We do benefit from the presence of Intel, Nike and other large employers. But as the numbers below indicate, small businesses provide more than half of the state’s private-sector jobs and much of its growth potential. According to a report from Oregon Business and Industries (OBI), Oregon relies more heavily upon small employers than the country at large.

Businesses

Number of Oregon small businesses (2021): 396,925
Share of all Oregon businesses that are small businesses (2021): 99.4%
Share of OBI members that have fewer than 100 employees: 82%

Employment (2021)

Number of Oregon small-business employees: 893,758
Share of state private-sector employees who work for small businesses: 54.9%
Share of U.S. private-sector employees who work for small businesses: 46.8%

Job Creation

Net increase in state small-business jobs, 2019 – 2020: 12,232
Small-business share of private-sector job growth, 2019 – 2020: 83.4%
Oregon small-business job growth between 1994 and 2018: 30%
National small-business job growth between 1994 and 2018: 20.1%

Top Small-Business Industry Sectors, by Employment (2018)

Professional, scientific and technical services: 63,952
Real estate and rental and leasing: 41,070
Other services (except public administration): 37,682
Retail trade: 35,928
Construction: 35,809

Top Small-Business Industry Sectors, by Payroll (2018)

Health care and social assistance: $5.1 billion
Construction: $4.9 billion
Professional, scientific, and technical services: $4.2 billion
Manufacturing: $4.2 billion
Retail trade: $2.85 billion

I have written before about the challenges in our coastal lakes as they face warming waters, algae growth, and weeds that make them practically unusable. As I wrote in early August, at our lake in Lincoln City, the problem has become particularly acute.

On Thursday, I met with Debbie Colbert, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) Deputy Director for Fish and Wildlife Programs and Shaun Clements, ODFW Deputy Administrator for Inland Fisheries. I brought them out to the lake to see the weeds for themselves.

The Devils Lake Water Improvement District (DLWID) is looking at a range of management tools to control the weeds, including a mechanical harvester, herbicides, and restocking of grass carp. Grass carp were last used in the lake in the 1990’s and DLWID has begun working with ODFW on a permit to allow them again.

The problem is that grass carp are an invasive species that can quickly impact the health of our rivers and lakes if they escape and breed. Because of this, ODFW requires anyone using grass carp to obtain a permit which includes the requirement that carp be sterile. Some of the provisions in ODFW’s current rules (adopted after Devils lake was last stocked) would not allow restocking. However, ODFW is working cooperatively with the DLWID to propose a rule modification to the ODFW commission. Additionally, the Department is advising the DLWID in their development of a stocking proposal to ensure it minimizes risk and helps bring the weed issues under control.

The DLWID and ODFW expect to be asking the ODFW commission for approval in January of 2023.

Earlier in the week, I attended a groundbreaking for two new Habitat for Humanity homes in Lincoln County.

Affordable housing plays a critical role in strong and stable communities. Habitat is a nonprofit organization that helps families build and improve places to call home. You are familiar with their ReStores that accept and sell donations and diverting reusable household items and building materials from area landfills. Sales of donated items help Habitat for Humanity partner with local families to build, rehabilitate, and repair safe and affordable homes.

At the Capitol, we work to fund housing. Habitat helps build homes, one-at-a-time. With the beginning of two new homes, we gave two families and eight children a life-changing hope for the future. The joy on their faces was unmistakable.

New Oregon regulations now allow recreational crabbers to catch triple the number of invasive green crabs from the state’s bays and inlets.

The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission increased the bag limit of European green crabs from 10 to 35 per day. It’s part of a concerted effort to eradicate the invasive crustaceans — which are known to compete with native crabs for food. Green crabs cannot reproduce in cold temperatures, but since the ocean warming events of 2015, their numbers have dramatically increased.

I’m pleased to see the limit increase from 10. If you were catching Dungeness and unintentionally hauled in 11 green crabs as bycatch, you would be in violation of the bag limit. But because the green crab is on the controlled species list, it was illegal to return an 11th green crab to the water. The new regulation fixes that mess!