The State of Oregon

Never in the history of the State of Oregon has the government spent more to purchase, lease, relocate or build more State office buildings and then proceed to fill them with new employees and equipment than since the voters passed Measure Five.

We must be able to find some way to force the State to reduce the amount of useless electron pushers to the same number of employees per thousand residents that we had forty or fifty years ago, when all paperwork was done the "hard way" by hand in ledgers.

The monetary waste by the State in purchasing supplies on "price agreement" does nothing to save the taxpayer from rampant overspending. The State must be required by laws yet unwritten to shop for materials at the same prices the we the citizens of Oregon would be paying on wholesale amounts.

The number of State employees having 24/7 use of State owned motor vehicles is nothing less than incredible.

Many of these are seen after hours and on weekends cruising the countryside and running personal errands at the expense of the Oregon taxpayer that is being stuck for gas, insurance and maintenance.

If they want to work for the State, let them commute in their own vehicles like the rest of us.

Why do we the taxpayers of Oregon have to supply the State employees with expensive 4X4 SUV's, if they need to travel "off road", or get to difficult locations in the middle of winter, in most cases they could do so with a cheap 4X4 compact pick-up truck with a camper shell for cargo.

While we are on the subject, all State vehicles should be equipped with GPS tracking, not only to see that they are used strictly for State business, but to hold the drivers to the posted speed limits. I have personally clocked State vehicles at speeds of up to one hundred ten miles per hour on the freeways, and it is not the least bit unusual to have them running 10 to 20 over the limit.