Our friend Les Zaitz is an investigative reporter at the Oregonian. He and his wife, Scotta Callister, also own the award-winning Keizer Times in Keizer. So, they have a broad feel for the state’s issues, cities and towns.
They also understand as small business owners, what it takes to keep the doors open each day.
Zaitz’s front page story in Sunday’s Oregonian about government spending waste in a time of dire budget news made my blood boil.
We hear lamentations from Salem that the sky is not only falling but the whole taxing structure has been sucked into a black hole and then we read that the state continues spending on such things as $212,000 for new chairs, $800,000 for travel junkets and consultant fees, $232,000 for newsletters and $43,350 for a kitchen staff so legislators don’t have to go out to eat during the day.
Add to this thousands of dollars in travel expenses and for meetings held in hotels in Oregon and the numbers begin to add up.
Shucks, some folks say, the tally is just a drop in the bucket when talking about the state’s total budget. They’re probably right.
But for legislators to force cuts on the general public and continue to spend money on frivolous items is hypocritical.
Most families in Oregon have had to closely evaluate their home budgets in the last couple years, as have local government agencies.
A dollar here, a dollar there and pretty soon, you’re talking real money.
Apparently folks in Salem need to be reminded of that.
A.P.