Families Hurting as Most Are Just Working at Paying the Bills

By Tootie Smith

Oregon Is A National Big Spender of Your Tax Dollars.

Oregon ranks as the nation’s fourth-biggest for state government spending, per capita, according to the latest data from the National Association of Budget Offices.

Oregon also ranks in the top 10 taxing states in America, per capita.

That means 46 other states spend less per person than Oregon to fund their governments.

Consider:  Oregon population is 4 million people and 1.5 million households pay all taxes. In the last three legislative sessions, $13 billion dollars of new tax increases passed by lawmakers.

The result of having one of the nation’s biggest, richest, and fattest governments is not efficiency or progress. Just the opposite. Rather, our government is too big to function. The politicians spent $58 million on a Wapato jail that was never used, $175 million on a Columbia River bridge that was never built, $298 million on vacant government jobs for employees who never worked, and $300 million on a health care website that was never used.

Oregon citizens have paid more taxes this biennium that ever before in history of statehood, according to Legislative Fiscal Office. Yet Governor Brown and Super Majority in Oregon Legislature wants to raise your taxes by $9 billion dollars.

The answer to government waste and overspending is for Oregon to adopt spending limits, term limits, and a public right to vote on all new major tax increases to stop the soaring growth of government spending. I hope you agree.