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:
- Letter: When headlines gaslight the public
Vancouver resident Peter Bracchi argues that emotionally charged immigration headlines blur legal distinctions and mislead the public rather than inform it. - Opinion: California’s unemployment debt crisis mirrors Washington’s Employment Security Department failures
Mark Harmsworth compares California’s growing unemployment insurance debt with Washington’s Employment Security Department failures and argues both states must reform or risk continued economic harm. - Opinion: Hard work is being done to try to trade one bad health care system for another
Elizabeth New (Hovde) cautions that efforts to create a universal, taxpayer-financed health care system in Washington risk replacing existing problems with new challenges tied to cost, access, and centralized control. - Opinion: The progressive attack on Washington’s sheriffs
Nancy Churchill argues that proposed legislation would shift power over county sheriffs away from voters and concentrate control within state government. - Letter: Is Secretary of State Hobbs really JUST protecting your voter information?
Camas resident Rick Vermeers questions the Washington secretary of state’s refusal to provide voter roll data to the U.S. Department of Justice and raises concerns about voter list transparency and compliance with federal law.
