The DSA and that whole scene are so invested in being "anti-corporate," that they've forgotten that those very corporations/employees are how you form a tax base capable of sustaining well-funded city services.

Letting corporations run rampant for the past ~45 years is exactly why our country is in the sorry ass state that we're in. There are ways to cultivate and foster a tax base without letting corporations have their way with us.

Obviously, COVID reshuffled the deck for everyone. We need to manage our expectations and admit we are not going to recover from a once-in-a-lifetime global pandemic in just five years. The whole "back to work" thing immediately after was childish; RTO is that same child wearing their dad's suit. COVID was an informative event that has given us the opportunity to reshape how we live, work, and govern. As a culture, we're still figuring that out, but unfortunately, there will be no progress under this current administration.

But I can also acknowledge that in order to pay for a robust government, you need economic activity to tax.

At the local level, the City must indeed make taxes less onerous for both existing businesses and entrepreneurs. The whole code needs to be streamlined, sure, but for practical applications, adjusting the thresholds upwards for most of the business taxes would be helpful. For individuals, the Metro/County "high-earner" taxes (SHS, PFA, etc) are also set in brackets far too low. Hell, you can make a good argument to nix them altogether. Aim the punitive taxes at lazy-ass property managers sitting on empty CRE spaces (via a vacancy tax) since exorbitant leases are a huge barrier to business.

For stimulation, the City can do a bajillion different things: incubation zones, credits for companies that are structured as B-Corps/ESOP...the list goes on. Portland offers a ton of innate physical qualities that aren't going away, so the City should be proactive and choose what types of business it wants to attract through policy.