Opinion: ‘Oh, the humanity!’

Date: Thursday, July 3, 2025

Lars Larson criticizes Portland officials’ response to a failed transportation bill, arguing that a 2 percent budget shortfall shouldn’t justify panic over street maintenance.

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.