Park police contract

Give some credit to the Clark County park police. Unlike many public-sector bargaining units whose members don't seem to believe the financial plight of the average taxpayer should have any impact whatsoever on their sheltered sinecures, the 15-person unit recently agreed to a recession-driven 4 percent wage reduction, 40 hours of unpaid furloughs and suspension of their annual uniform and equipment allowances through June 2011.

The resulting $115,000 in savings in a $1.2 billion county budget may look like pretty small potatoes. But the point is that the park police appear to have "gotten it": We're all in this together.

We wish we could say the same for County Commissioner Tom Collins, who cast the lone vote against ratifying the new one-year labor contract Tuesday, saying the police have been pressured into giving up some of their pay.

"They got beat up for the last two years and threatened that they would be laid off," Mr. Collins explained.

Mr. Collins is a great guy. His concern for the working man is sincere. His "I'm stickin' by the union" stance often puts him on the opposite side of the fence from fiscal conservatives, but we had nonetheless long considered him to possess a strong ration of common sense.

Come on, commissioner. You primarily represent the taxpayers of your district -- yes, the municipal employees unions "count," but they come in a distant second. Can you really say a county employee who's still promised a pension and benefits far above those known in the private sector is getting more of a "raw deal" under this contract than a laid-off private-sector worker who's not sure how to keep paying his or her rent or mortgage -- but who's still expected to pay all county taxes, in full and on time?

We've all been beat up over the past two years. And there was no shortage of detailed warning, over the past decade or two, that the go-go rate of government growth would prove unsustainable, should hard times arrive.

When the storm seas are breaking over the stern, someone has to show the leadership ability, the strength of character, to ruthlessly lighten ship.