Decisions don’t make best use of funds

I am outraged! Our lame duck county council – which unanimously opposed Initiative 747, can’t find enough money to expand our road capacity, can’t fund enough law enforcement officers, but can find the resources to raise their own pay – have somehow found enough taxpayer money to extend 2,000 county employees’ health care coverage to include “domestic partners.”

Having personally administered employee benefits for several small corporations for the past 12 years, I can’t imagine it costing only 50,000 in 2002, not to mention future increases, which historically have been far in excess of inflation. To extend such a benefit at any estimated cost when both the term “domestic partner” and their criteria for eligibility are not yet even defined is thoroughly irresponsible.

And yes, our government “leaders,” whether intentionally or not, are in fact sending a message that marriage between a man and a woman, as well as the family, are just old-fashioned relics from an unenlightened era, rather than being the foundational covenant and unit upon which enduring societies are grounded.

Does anyone wonder why we question the principles upon which our elected officials make decisions, as well as their claims that the county budget can’t be balanced without tax increases?

Bothell

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