WEEKLY EDITORIAL RECAP

WEDNESDAY

The County punts

After months of talking a good game about finally addressing a root cause of massive revenue shortfalls -- unsustainable growth in county employee compensation -- the County Commission blinked Monday. It punted on third down, approving a 2010-11 budget that, at least for now, bails out public employee unions that insist on collecting generous pay raises, even as local tax collections continue to decline.

The only sane way to deal with a projected budget deficit of more than $120 million is a combination of layoffs and concessions from bargaining groups. Because county unions have shown no interest in having their members get by with what they have now -- let alone less -- commissioners had a responsibility to taxpayers to take a tough bargaining position.

Instead, they swiped $55 million from a capital fund, $47.3 million from their general fund reserves and used $20 million in one-time federal reimbursements to plug the budget's hole.

That's $120 million that won't be available next year. Blowing that money now is akin to the aforementioned Megabucks pull -- it's a prayer that the valley's economy will turn around quickly and provide government with the windfall it needs to avoid making the cuts that should have been authorized Monday. ...

The bill for the county's free spending on personnel has come due. By refusing to pay now, commissioners are ensuring that taxpayers will pay more later.