March 21 Daily News editorial

Leading by example

Thumbs up to our county commissioners — George Raiter, Kathleen Johnson and Axel Swanson. They’re leading by example, volunteering to take a 10 percent pay cut to help Cowlitz County government trim about $4 million from its budget. The commissioners’ pay cut, of course, will be far short of what’s needed to close that budget gap. But it carries considerable symbolic value.

County department heads and elected officials are being asked to cut spending by 10 percent. Voluntary furloughs are being considered for county employees. Unions are expected to approve changes in contracts to accommodate such cost-cutting measures. Everybody’s being asked to sacrifice in order to get through this rough stretch with as few layoffs and as little disruption in county services as possible. It helps that the officials asking for these sacrifices are the first to take a financial hit.

Business as usual in Olympia

Thumbs down: The labor e-mail that circulated among union lobbyists and a select few legislative leaders last week was surprisingly blunt. It said the state Democratic Party and House and Senate Democratic campaigns should be told they would not see “another dime from labor” until the so-called Worker Privacy Act was signed into law. The governor and legislative leaders expressed shock, quickly pulled the union-favored legislation from consideration and instructed the Washington State Patrol to determine whether a crime had been committed.

Labor representatives said lawmakers were looking for a reason not to take a vote on the bill, which Boeing strongly opposed. They scoffed at the suggestion that the e-mail was criminal and, indeed, the WSP determined this week that it was not. We’re not surprised. This e-mail’s message may have been more explicit than usual, but its implied threat to lawmakers who fail to toe the line is pretty much business as usual in Olympia. And it will always be so as long as narrow special interests pay for political campaigns.

We’re No. 14!

Thumbs up: Here’s a piece of good news for Washingtonians: This state’s congressional delegation has been ranked 14th in clout on Capitol Hill. The ranking — by the Washington, D.C.-based publication Roll Call — is based on the size of the delegation, number of committee chairmen and ranking members, and leadership posts.

It’s always good to have a strong voice in the nation’s capital when it comes to sending those federal tax dollars back to the states. This clout may not be quite as beneficial today as it was before “earmark” became a dirty word. But it does give this state’s needs a higher profile than those of Idaho (No. 50 on the clout scale) or even Oregon and Maine (tied for No. 39). That can’t hurt.

Survey shows little movement

Thumbs sideways: Washington’s biennial Healthy Youth Survey is a mixed bag for both the state and Cowlitz County. The number of young people making healthy decisions hasn’t grown over the past two years. But neither has it declined.

As was the case two years ago, more kids in Cowlitz County say they drink or smoke than do kids statewide. But only slightly more. Most Cowlitz County responses mirrored statewide responses, according to Daily News reporter Leila Summers. And there were positive trends for the county in this latest survey. Fewer Cowlitz County eight-graders were skipping school, fewer 10th-graders attempted suicide and more local 10th-graders were wearing seat belts than were statewide.