
Lars Larson believes ‘the drama queens at Portland City Hall need to settle down and patch some potholes’
Lars Larson
The Northwest Nonsense
When the people’s representatives in Salem failed to pass the biggest tax increase in history Sunday, it was hard to find more hysterical cries than those emanating from Portland City Hall.
Oh, the humanity!

And folks in the media amplified the “sky is falling” reaction.
The Daily Dead Fishwrapper headlined it “Portland says basic street maintenance is at risk”.
KGW offered that PBOT “faces significant financial challenges”.
Can anybody do math anymore?
I looked up the numbers myself.
PBOT, the folks who DON’T fix all those potholes enjoys an annual budget of 509 million.
The money they expected from the failed transportation bill: 11 million.
In other words, a loss of 2 percent from the city’s street funding.
A 2 percent short fall cripples the city’s maintenance budget?
No wonder the roads don’t get fixed.
Sounds like more than a few of the apparatchiks in government need a lesson in belt tightening.
Most of the families in America saw their paychecks fall behind inflation by double digits the last four years. They’d have gladly traded that for a 2 percent shortfall.
Tell the drama queens down at City Hall to settle down and patch some potholes.
Also read:
- Opinion: Washington is bleeding taxpayers and now a State Representative wants to make it worseMark Harmsworth argues that a proposed statewide payroll tax would worsen Washington’s ongoing loss of jobs, businesses, and economic competitiveness.
- Opinion: Simultaneous left turnsDoug Dahl explains how Washington law directs drivers to make simultaneous left turns by passing to the left of each other in an intersection.
- Opinion: WEA secret meeting about opposing the initiatives gets leakedAn opinion from Let’s Go Washington criticizes a leaked Washington Education Association meeting about opposing LGW’s initiatives on girls’ sports and school transparency.
- Opinion: Kitchen table advocacy – Influence the legislature from homeNancy Churchill encourages citizens to influence the Washington State Legislature from home by focusing on committees, building small advocacy teams, and engaging positively with legislators.
- Opinion: When elected officials raise your property taxes, don’t blame the assessorPaul Guppy explains that property tax increases are set by elected officials, not assessors, and urges holding the right officials accountable to restore fiscal sanity.







