Last Friday's Portland Tribune contained a full page of debate over whether Oregon taxpayers really get their money's worth out of the state Economic and Community Development Department. (Today they're scheduled to take a look at the Oregon Liquor Control Commission, but that's definitely worth a posting of its own.)

I don't think the ECD department is worth what we're paying for it.

For starters, in my 25 years here, the biggest problem I have seen Oregon deal with is too much economic development. Thanks to a huge influx from our neighboring state to the south, our cities are crowded, roads are inadequate, family farms are disapperaring, ticky-tacky apartment complexes are everywhere, there's a whole California attitude on the roads and in the streets, taxes are a dirty word, and the suburbs are sprawling (within the bounds of our land use laws, which lots of the newcomers would like to throw in the garbage). If it were up to me, we'd take former Gov. Tom McCall's lead and change Oregon's slogan back to "A nice place to visit, but don't plan to stay."

But even if you think economic development is a good and necessary thing, the real question is whether we need a state bureaucracy to encourage it -- a state bureaucracy which, even after the recent budget cuts that have left sick people to die and roam the streets, spends $460 million a year.

That's right, $460 million a year of state taxpayer money to attract businesses to Oregon.

It's not worth it.

When one looks at the sorry state of Oregon's economy, it's hard to believe that anyone has been working to develop it. Of course, the good folks in Salem say that if it weren't for them, the situation would be worse. But that's very debatable.

The department claims that it created 2577 jobs last year, and saved 5707 more. Those numbers are in serious dispute. The Secretary of State and others say they're inflated. But even if they are correct, that's more than $55,500 of public money spent for every job brought here or saved.

That's too much.