Oregon Senator Doug Whitsett's latest newsletter lays out the stark realities of the Oregon Department of Transportation's fiscal cliff it is about to fall off of. After reading through it, the only common sense conclusion one can reach is that ODOT's history of mismanaging the taxpayers resources continues unabated.
So it begs the question: why give ODOT more money if they are going to continue to waste or mismanage it?
This is a relevant question as we are seeing nearly every day news stories about the special legislative group meeting to come up with a new transportation package that will likely be the largest tax/fee increase on the citizens in Oregon ever!
Sen Whitsett points out the nearly $7,000 cost per driver to entice Oregon drivers to participate in a pilot program as an example of ODOT's practice of wasting tax dollars. They certainly haven't learned from their spectacular failures like the Eddyville by pass that has nearly tripled in cost, or their (and WSDOT's) 200 million dollar waste for engineering studies for the CRC, which was never built.
It is OCWF's opinion that a large portion of new tax/fee revenue will be used to fill ODOT's current budget hole and much less will actually be spent on desperately needed new road projects or for maintenance than what they will say when they are passing this massive tax/fee increase package in 2017.
Once again the public will be deceived by Salem politicans and ODOT's bureaucrats and our only saving grace to keeping them all in line is to use our constitutional power to let the voters decide the issue with a citizen referendum.
The liberal Atlantic magazine published this story about Oregon's Welfare Utopia with a confusing headline, leaving you with the impression that Oregon either has achieved Nirvana or we have gone way overboard.
The reality is that we haven't achieved welfare Nirvana, but that we are on the path to becoming Illinois or Detroit and it's actually worse than you think.
Oregon's generous welfare policy traps recipients into accepting the crumbs from the government table instead of going out an getting a job, paying taxes, feeling good about themselves and moving up the ladder of success. Why are they trapped? Because they get more in welfare benefits than what they will earn in a job.
Last night I talked to a person who places the poor, the young, felons and those coming off welfare into jobs. He lamented that so many of those he works with have no work ethic and often quit soon after getting a job because they realize they are going to have to work hard for less than they are getting from welfare. I have heard this story from several employers and employment organizations like NFIB, over the last few years also so it is clearly a quantifiable trend.
Common sense tells us that if people had to work (instead of sitting around in their section 8 housing playing Xbox all day, getting free medical care, cash and food stamps), they would develop good work habits, increase their self esteem and start participating in society in a way that is beneficial to all.
While the article's slant is that more conservative states which have lesser benefits than Oregon offers are racist, mean spirited and purposefully hurt poor people, the author does inadvertently makes the case for welfare to work (Jobs Plus) programs instead of the progressive idea of "safety net" which is nothing more than total dependence on government handouts. Oregon's Jobs Plus program was started by Republicans in the legislature as the pet project of the manufacturing giant, the late Dick Wendt and despite several attempts to kill it, has survived even during Democrat legislative control, primarily because it works.
The real story of Oregon's welfare utopia is the tremendous negative societal effects are going to only get worse as people move here for the welfare benefits, as they have done historically in other states that had generous welfare programs.
Serious welfare reform is needed immediately in Oregon before the damage done to those dependent on government becomes so great that we become Greece. Perhaps the people will rise up and demand Oregon's leaders reverse their horrible welfare policy that hurts the very people they purport to help.
If you thought taxpayer funded research about shrimps on a treadmill was the craziest waste of your tax dollars, along comes newly discovered stories about tax dollars paying to have honey bees sting a man's penis! Aside from the obvious absurdity of this research, you wonder what rational thought process is used to approve this type of expenditure? Or how about researchers at OHSU using alcohol to get birds drunk to determine if their songs change? What meaningful outcome to humanity was achieved in these efforts?
Oh I know that it will be defended by those who support these ridiculous expenditures of tax dollars as I saw during my legislative years as much of that type of illogical, non common nonsensical explanation was made by bureaucrats and researchers as they sought money for these types of expenditures. What is amazing to me is that policymakers at all levels accept these dubious rationales and approve these wastes of your money for such projects. While it pales in comparison to the 305 Million dollars wasted on the non working Cover Oregon website, you gotta wonder how much of this type of ridiculous and wasteful spending occurs at all levels of government in America.
It probably adds up to more than we think, which should give us all some pause the next time some politician is advocating for raising your taxes or fees.
