Nike request prompts Oregon special session
Company wants tax guarantee before making expansion plan
SALEM – Athletic footwear and apparel giant Nike Inc. plans to expand its operations in Oregon and hire hundreds of workers but wants the government to promise that tax rules won’t change, prompting a special session of the Legislature.
Gov. John Kitzhaber said he’ll call lawmakers together Friday in Salem to create a new law authorizing him to grant Nike’s wish, and legislative leaders said they’ll go along.
The Legislature is due to meet in its regular annual session beginning Jan. 14, but Kitzhaber said Nike needed certainty sooner. The company was being wooed by other states, he said.
“Getting Oregonians back to work is my top priority,” Kitzhaber said in a news conference.
Nike wants an agreement that its state income tax will continue to be based solely on the company’s Oregon sales, regardless of any future changes in the tax code, for a negotiated time period. Before 2005, Oregon also included a company’s in-state payroll and property in the corporate tax formula.
Kitzhaber is asking for authority to make such a guarantee if a company invests at least $150 million and hires 500 or more workers.
Nike has not specified its expansion plans, and spokeswoman Mary Remuzzi wouldn’t say how many people would be hired beyond the 500 required under the proposed legislation. The company hasn’t decided where it would expand.
“We support this proposed legislation as a way to help us continue to grow in Oregon,” Don Blair, Nike vice president and chief financial officer, said in a statement.
The proposal is not a tax break for Nike but rather a tool to offer tax certainty to any company planning a big investment, Kitzhaber said.
Kitzhaber said he expects the Legislature to adopt the legislation in a one-day special session. House and Senate leaders from both parties responded positively to the governor’s proposal.
“This is a rare opportunity and we’re not going to miss it,” said Democratic state Senate President Peter Courtney.
Oregon’s current tax formula, known as a “single-sales factor,” benefits corporations like Nike that have a large share of their payroll and property in Oregon but a small share of their sales there.