Marissa Madej

The lunch-spot of choice today seemed to be the Riverhouse Conference Center, where Governor John Kitzhaber addressed a couple hundred local business leaders and community members as the keynote speaker at the Economic Development for Central Oregon annual luncheon.
“Oregon is open for business,” Governor Kitzhaber proclaimed, enthusiastically beginning his address to Central Oregon. In his first official visit to the region since being elected to a third term, Kitzhaber immediately went on to highlight Oregon’s recent positive economic accomplishments, including being named the 6th ranking state in Forbes magazine’s “Best States for Business”. His enthusiasms emanated his belief that the state leadership must “tell a better and different business story” than the story of economic difficulty that has been recently and frequently portrayed.
“The bottom line is that Oregon is a small business state,” said Kitzhaber, “We need a robust and balanced profile to ensure sustainable economic development.”