As reported by Bizjournals, Portland and Multnomah County are working together to finally end the venture capital tax. This tax, in my opinion, is instrumental in slowing down Portland's growth and innovation. By providing a strong incentive for wealthy VC firms to NOT locate in Portland we're basically saying that the growing entrepreneurship trends aren't worth our time, which is hideously stupid. The current system double taxes by putting a combined 3.65% on capital gains. In response, rich firms are moving all of their business to the suburbs. Portland needs these firms. Without them, we're going to languish; with them, we'll have taken a large step on the path towards bursting out of our regional focus and making Portland the city that we all want her to be.

Thank you, Jeff Cogen and Sam Adams.

Of course, I could be wrong. Maybe this isn't a big step towards Portland's future. Maybe we need to be focusing on other things, like... well... I don't know. What do our city leaders need to be focusing on?

Disclaimer: I built CommissionerSam.com way back in the day and the company I work for built CommissionerCogen.com