Lars Larson: Senator presses Kotek over wasteful employee travel

By Lars Larson,
NW and national radio host

Tina Kotek has a big decision to make that could speak volumes to citizens about the proper role of government in their lives.

Does the government exist to serve citizens or is it the citizens who serve the government.

During the pandemic, lots of people began working remotely including state workers.

Some of them decided to work a couple of thousand miles away in states that didn’t have an income tax, a big benefit to them.

And then when they had to come back to Oregon for required meetings…they figured taxpayers should pay for their airline tickets. Governor Brown decided it was necessary during the pandemic emergency.

My friends at the Pulitzer prize winning Willamette week broke the story last year and the public wasn’t happy about it.

But the pandemic’s over and so are the emergency powers…but payments to state workers continue

Lawmakers have a bipartisan bill to stop that…but last Thursday, I asked state Senator Tim Knopp if he’d asked Governor Kotek to stop paying the personal travel expenses of already well compensated state workers.

He had not…and when I demanded he explain why.

Senator Knopp promised to do so.

Friday, he did exactly that with a letter to Kotek to simply end this scam.

Now, it’s up to the Governor to decide…do state workers serve citizens…or is it citizens who serve our elite government class.

You can see the Willamette Week Story Here: https://www.wweek.com/news/state/2023/02/17/encountering-a-roadblock-to-curbing-state-reimbursement-for-remote-employee-travel-rep-tim-knopp-pivots/