Lars Larson: Government just proved they don’t care

By Lars Larson,
NW and national radio host

I call it “moving at the speed of government”.

Here in the Northwest, the government never gets tired of reminding us “we already have your money, and you only have our promise to eventually get the job done”.

I’ll give you two recent examples.

All the way through the pandemic, government employees never missed a paycheck.

Teachers that didn’t teach. Paper pushers who pushed no paper. The checks never stopped.

Now, the Oregon DMV has decided to close a bunch of its offices and shorten the hours at others.

Yeah, I know they’re the only game in town… can’t get plates or registration or licenses anywhere else… and that sucks for citizens… but they already have your money and you pay the cost in inconvenience.

Trimet has more money than it’s ever seen thanks to covid relief and taxes but it can’t seem to hire enough drivers.

Solution? Cut service to customers.

Even their light rail system is running at about HALF the service level it promised.

But like the occasional lazy employee you find in the private sector…it pays the same whether they move slow or fast.

My solution… match the money they get to the service they provide.

When service goes down… so do the paychecks.

And fire the managers who can’t seem to manage.