Oregon Public Broadcasting

The Obama administration outlined a plan Tuesday to direct assistance to small business owners. And that could be helpful to Oregon, depending on who qualifies as a small business.

Federal rules cast a wide net, allowing a company to self-classify as a small business.

Manufacturers count the number of workers they have, while construction firms and retailers figure their size by the revenue they bring in.

Patrick O’Connor is a state economist who follows employment in Marion, Polk, and Yamhill counties. He says tracing benefits of small business incentives is subtle work.

Patrick O’Connor: “And I think it’s relative to your community. If you’re a small rural community with less than a thousand jobs, someone with twenty five or thirty employees might be a fairly significant business.”

Many of Oregon’s agricultural outfits qualify as small businesses.

Economists following Portland say the metro area has a disproportionate number of jobs with large companies like Nike or Intel. So it’s hard to say if tax breaks and credit help for small businesses would kick start Oregon’s economy.