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The news coming from Portland Public Schools and the Beaverton School District has not been good in the last few weeks. The Portland school district may lay off 110 teachers and the Beaverton school district may lay off more than 300 staffers. They are joining the ranks of other government employees who are on furlough days or other reduced-hour programs.

The first reactions are to march to Salem and demand more financial support. Right behind that are discussions about raising taxes and closing loopholes to squeeze more money out of the same tax base.

But no matter what is done, food cart operators and baristas won’t pay enough taxes to put teachers back to work. Oregon needs large business enterprises that create wealth by offering products on a national or international level.

There is another approach 鈥� one that increases tax revenues rather than taxes. During the economic boom of the last decade, Oregonians did not pay much attention to their tax bills because they could afford them. But with fewer Oregonians (blue-collar ones, in particular) employed, tax revenues are lagging. And after reserves are exhausted, education districts and other government service providers have no choice but to reduce.

To increase tax revenues, Oregonians should gather around and redouble their efforts to support economic development projects that leverage the state’s unique location and its natural resources. The focus should be on projects not financed by the government (because government is out of money) but by private parties.

These projects could be coal export facilities, natural gas export facilities, server farms and wind farms. The second one, in particular, has a significant impact on one of our major trading partners, Japan, which has just shut down much of its nuclear energy and is in a significant energy deficit. As a significant and uniquely positioned trading partner, Oregon should extend its help where it can to promote Japan’s economy 鈥� an effort that will ultimately benefit our own.

Parties impacted by the reduction in tax revenues should step forward and look closely at these projects and find ways to promote them. These projects will return significant tax revenues without increasing taxes. The gas export terminal is budgeted at $8 billion, a cost much greater than the Intel project now being constructed in Hillsboro.

In supporting these projects, however, Oregonians should not give up their modern environmental sensibilities. Oregonians are quick to quote the 鈥済rand poobah鈥� of Oregon’s environmental movement, former governor Tom McCall, without understanding that he governed over a state of fabulous wealth 鈥� one based on natural resource extraction. But that is an economic model that we cannot replicate in today’s day and age.

It is imaginative projects that capitalize on our unique qualities that will bring Oregon back to a level of affluence that will support the 70 percent of Oregonians who do not graduate from college with family-wage jobs. Oregonians should insist that these projects be done right, meet our contemporary environmental sensibilities and show the rest of the world that Oregon is a leader in sustainable technologies that support a broad range of employment.

Christian Steinbrecher is president of Ukiah Engineering Inc., a senior consultant at Capital Project Consultants and the ASCE Oregon 2011-2012 Civil Engineer of the Year. Contact him at [email protected].