PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Oregon may be in the middle of budget crisis, but that hasn’t stopped state officials from spending millions on contractors.
An Oregonian (http://bit.ly/tHfnXf) investigation has found, for example, lawmakers approved spending more than $4 million on a consulting firm to represent them in the Portland Harbor Superfund cleanup case.
While the state of Oregon has forced furlough days on its workers and cut services to the poor, but it supports private contractors who charge as much as $300 an hour for their services.
Oregonian reporters have reviewed thousands of state contracts and identified nearly $10 billion in state commitments to outside vendors.
