Ahead of the May 15 meeting of Gov. Tina Kotek’s Prosperity Council in Eugene, one of the loudest voices on the panel pushed for an even more aggressive posture, particularly on tax reductions.
In a May 13 email to the 15 other members of the council, Jordan Schnitzer, CEO of Schnitzer Properties in Portland, argued that a draft of the group’s forthcoming recommendations to Kotek on how to boost the state’s economy lacked “urgency and weight.”
That draft was obtained by OJP earlier this week and included 10 recommendations for revitalizing Oregon’s economy. But to Schnitzer’s mind, it did not go far enough.
“We can all try to be polite, but the biggest issue arresting Oregon’s economy is high taxes,” Schnitzer wrote in the May 13 email. “There is clear factual evidence that business owners gravitate to states with competitive tax rates.”
At one level, that argument is self-serving. Schnitzer is one of Oregon’s wealthiest citizens. His company owns and operates 31 million square feet of real estate.
It’s also the case that of the 16 members of the panel, Schnitzer is among the best qualified to opine on the state’s tax structure because, in addition to its home base in Oregon, his company has significant operations in other states for comparison, including Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah and Washington.
Schnitzer Properties not only pays taxes in all those states, but Schnitzer and his staff are in regular contact with current and prospective commercial, industrial, retail and residential tenants. (Disclosure: Schnitzer is also a donor to the Oregon Journalism Project.)
“We cannot help Gov. Kotek accomplish her goals without facing this stark reality that Oregon’s high tax rates—and of course the Legislature adopts higher taxes and fees every time it convenes—is driving away business owners,” Schnitzer wrote. “When there are fewer taxpayers and less profitable companies, state and local government budgets suffer.”
Kotek herself has been making the connection between economic strength and robust public services more explicit in the past year. She took aim at the Multnomah County Preschool for All Program at the end of the 2025 legislative session, questioning whether it was driving away high income earners and, in December, announced a Prosperity Roadmap.
“We must bring our full potential to bear, working together to create an economy that works for everyone,” Kotek said then. “By uniting around a statewide vision and coordinating our talents and assets, we can ensure Oregon doesn’t just keep up but leads in sustained economic growth.”
That marked a tonal shift for a politician who’d spent most of the first 20 years of her career more focused on spending tax revenues than bolstering the economy.
At least two of Schnitzer’s colleagues on the council disagree strongly with his direction. Alice Dale, a retired Service Employees International Union official, and Robert Camarillo, executive secretary of the Oregon State Building and Construction Trades Council, made a presentation to the Prosperity Council last month that said Kotek and the Legislature should concentrate on “improving per capita income and improving the lives of low- and moderate-income Oregonians.”
“Focusing on merely growing the economy, reducing taxes on the highest income earners or businesses, or relying on flawed business climate rankings, which are often biased and unreliable indicators of a state’s economic prosperity, miss the mark,” Dale and Camarillo told their colleagues.
While Dale and Camarillo made their presentation in a closed-door meeting of the Prosperity Council, Schnitzer has been more public in stating his concerns, earlier blasting the Legislature’s passage of a bill partly disconnecting Oregon’s tax system from federal tax cuts. Despite opposition from him and other business leaders, Kotek signed the bill.
For all of his wealth, Schnitzer, who has contributed $25,000 to Kotek’s reelection campaign, recognizes where Kotek’s allegiances and the state’s greatest political power historically lie.
He sent his first email at 1:47 pm on May 13. Later that day, Schnitzer sent out a second message to the Prosperity Council. In that email, he attached a list of the state’s largest labor unions and added this note:
“While many of us may differ with the labor unions on policy issues, it is important that we work to develop better relationships between the leaders of Oregon’s private sector businesses and labor unions.”
The Prosperity Council will present its final recommendations in June.
This story was produced by the Oregon Journalism Project, a nonprofit investigative newsroom for the state of Oregon. The Prineville Review became a partner of OJP in August of 2025 in order to bring our readers investigative reporting from across Oregon.
Nigel Jaquiss
Jaquiss is the most decorated journalist in Oregon history. A graduate of Dartmouth College and the Columbia School of Journalism, he’s the winner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting for his work at Willamette Week (the only time in U.S. history this award has been won by a weekly newspaper).
