Of Walkouts and Roadmaps: New ‘Prosperity Officer’ Hails from Central Oregon

If you’ve been paying attention to state politics in recent months, then you know that the state’s economy has been a big topic.

Perhaps most eye-popping for some state leaders was Oregon’s ranking in a 2025 CNBC poll, which placed the state 39^th among its Top States for Business. Oregon ranked 28^th in the poll in 2024, and 21^st in 2023.

“Job growth now trails national averages, in-migration has fallen sharply, and population forecasts have been cut in half since 2019,” warned the November report from Oregon Business Plan, a stakeholder group of business and government leaders that proposes policies to boost the state’s economy.

Priorities in the report included streamlining laws to avoid complex or duplicate regulations, making more land available for housing, industrial and energy needs, rebuilding educational accountability, managing fires and forests and reforming taxation.

In December, leaders from the business and political sectors gathered for the Oregon Business Plan’s Leadership Summit, sharing stories of Oregon’s “economic crossroads.”

Around the same time, Gov. Tina Kotek announced her new “prosperity roadmap,” outlining similar goals and creating both a Governor’s Prosperity Council and a Chief Prosperity Officer, tasked with working out the finer details of the roadmap.

With an election looming for Kotek, and the numbers showing a downward economic trajectory for the state, a lot is riding on the new position. So, imagine our surprise when the person named for the job is none other than Bend’s Tim Knopp — last seen as the Minority Leader in charge of the walkout delegation of the Republicans in the Oregon legislature.

The former Bend state senator who was disqualified from running for re-election after leading the longest walkout in state history is now being tapped to bring Oregon back from the economic brink. It’s hard not to see the irony.

Tim Knopp speaking on the House floor — Tim Knopp represented Bend in the state House from 1999 to 2005, and in the state Senate from 2013 to 2025. Credit: Tim Knopp

“Knopp, a native Oregonian and Central Oregon resident of more than four decades, brings decades of experience in public service, small business leadership, and community engagement to his work supporting Oregon’s economy and communities,” read a Jan. 14 press release from Kotek’s office.

When you think of it one way, hiring Knopp for this $190,000-a-year gig isn’t the worst move for Kotek. Hiring a prominent Republican for such a job seems politically wise. Kotek and Knopp worked together on numerous initiatives during their time in the legislature. Knopp’s got a background advocating for development in his longtime job for the Central Oregon Builders Association.

But we have doubts. Besides serving on the board of the Bend Chamber, Knopp has no obvious background in economic development at this scale. His history of walkouts renders him suspect in some circles, even if he is heralded in others. Will that make him effective amid a Democratic majority, suddenly being tasked with upending touchy things like property taxes and Oregon’s land use system, in the name of economic prosperity?

With our falling economic outlook, it’s time to look at Oregon’s regulatory environment and its patchwork of taxes, fees and laws to see how they may be hindering the state’s growth. The governor’s choice is politically challenging, given Knopp’s record of abdicating the state when things got tough. But Kotek’s experience with him in the House obviously led her to think there was something of merit in his negotiating skills.

On the upside, we cannot ignore the obvious benefit: having someone from Central Oregon with their hands on the prosperity road map is probably a good thing for the region.

This article appears in the Source January 22, 2026.