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This report is misleading. Using per capita personal income as the sole measure of economic vitality excludes people who reside in other states but work in Oregon (I'm thinking of Vancouver, WA, specifically)--even though they pay Oregon income taxes and tend to make their purchases here as well. Since the metro area largely drives per capita income, this has a significant effect on the statewide statistics.

Another interesting omission from this report is that while the per capita income of Portland residents is about 10% below the national average for metro areas, our rural areas are actually doing quite well--within 3% of the national average.

That's not to mention that we have seen consistently higher population growth than the national average, reducing per capita income. Other states with comparable population growth have fared similarly. If you look at the states that have increased their per capita income in recent history, none of them have experienced anything even close to our population growth, making the national average an unfair comparison. We simply aren't New York or Connecticut.

posted 2 years, 5 months ago
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