Monday, December 18, 2006

Oregon Hates Small Businesses?

Once again the state of Oregon seems to be sticking its head into the wrong end of am issue. The Democrat Herald is reporting that the Department of Consumer and Business Services has decided to enforce the 70-year-old Oregon Pawnbroker Act. The definition of this law is "if a company lends money at more than 10 percent annual interest and takes possession of personal property to do so, it is a pawn activity." The DCB has already started enforcing this.

To be left alone by the DCB you have to pay an initial fee of $500 and an annual fee of $350. This is just another redundant, nonessential fee that puts pressure on small businesses to meet the bottom line. Larger businesses are pretty much unaffected by this, so this is really a strike at the smaller guys. If there is anything we should be doing it is giving the small guys a break.

This enforcement is going to put small businesses out and cost jobs to the ones that can afford it. So with the small amount of money that it will bring in, what is the net gain? Less businesses and less jobs so that the state can give a few more bucks to the Oregon Cultural Trust.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This enforcement is going to put small businesses out and cost jobs to the ones that can afford it.

Please Dan. You are so full of it. If a "small" business can't afford this little fee, they shouldn't be in business, or they should go to some other state. In all likely they are contributing very little to Oregon's economy anyways if $500 is too steep. Rule is, you gotta pay to play.

You small business "crusaders" need to really find something else to nag about, something that is an actual real problem.

DanTheMan said...

True, according to the rules, yes, you have to pay to play. But, it is the unfortunate anti-business atmosphere that I am nagging about.