Cheers: To proposed pay cuts for Washougal’s mayor and city council. The reduction is small — the mayor would be paid $1,800 per month, $200 less, and council members’ pay would be reduced by $50 to $450 per month. But the message of shared sacrifice it sends is big. The pay cuts were proposed by a salary commission that studied similar-sized cities and found Washougal’s pay was slightly higher. “In view of the current economy and the austere budget that the city is facing, we felt that it would be proper to not only meet the ‘averages’ of the other cities, but to tighten the belt when it comes to elected official salaries,” salary commission chairman Chuck Carpenter told the Camas-Washougal Post-Record. Exactly.
Jeers: To Patty Murray, Maria Cantwell and the other 54 U.S. senators who opposed a ban on congressional earmarks. At only about 1 percent of federal spending, eliminating earmarks would hardly make a dent in runaway federal spending and the corresponding yawning budget deficit. But it demonstrates that a majority of senators remain reluctant to part with their porky ways. The earmarks direct portions of federal spending directly to members’ favorite projects, bypassing the appropriations process. And that, in turn, makes voters wonder what part of “financial crisis” these supposed representatives still don’t understand.
Cheers: To smooth Thanksgiving holiday travel at Portland International Airport. With crowded airports and new body scanning security devices at some airports (but not PDX) some observers predicted a hellish weekend for fliers. Up to 45,000 people per day passed through the Portland airport over the holiday, but no significant crowding, lines or delays occurred. No wonder PDX was recently recognized as the best in the nation in a poll of 8,000 frequent fliers by Zagat Survey.
Jeers: To shelling out more taxpayer money so the state printer can hire its own lobbyist for the 2011 legislative session. According to House Republicans, the agency would pay up to $25,000 for a representative for the 105-day session. Like other agencies, the printer has taken its share of budget cuts, mostly because it has been receiving less work from other cash-strapped agencies. The printer is a 19th-century holdover that enjoys a near-monopoly on providing printing and binding for state agencies. The state should investigate whether in this digital age this agency is irrelevant.
