Our Views: Sniveling senators are elitists

Taxpayers subsidize the private dining room for state senators so they can eat sumptuous meals prepared by a French chef.

That's right. As a taxpayer, you pay part of the tab so senators can eat breakfast for $4 and lunch and dinner for $6.

But apparently that's not good enough.

Sniveling senators have sent a letter to the secretary of the Senate complaining that during upcoming Capitol Campus construction, the 49 senators will be forced to dine with the 98 members of the House of Representatives.

Heaven forbid, senators and representatives will be forced to break bread together in what the senators deride as "a rather small, crowded dining room in the former state library building."

"THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE," senators wrote.

It gets better.

The letter, originally signed by 36 of the 49 senators, concludes with this gem: "We want you to know that eating lunch in a joint dining room with the House is an unacceptable alternative."

What's unacceptable is the bloated ego of letter author Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver, and his 35 Senate colleagues.

Who do they think they are?

Do they really think they are superior to their House counterparts?

Such arrogance and snobbery!

Sen. Karen Fraser, D-Thurston County, and Sen. Dan Swecker, R-Rochester, had the good sense not to sign the letter.

Sen. Tim Sheldon, D-Potlatch, signed but is having second thoughts.

"That shows me I should never sign a Benton letter," Sheldon said. "I regret not reading the letter very carefully, because I would not object to eating with anybody."

The elitist letter is bad enough, but it is especially galling when taken in context with Senate legislative action to cut state spending by $685 million, reduce state services, lay off hundreds of employees and freeze the salaries of state workers.

Which brings us to a second, but related issue.

While rank and file state employees will get no salary increase this year, state legislators will get their pay raises.

On Sept. 1, the annual pay for the part time legislators will increase from $32,801 to $33,556. The salary for House and Senate leaders will jump from $40,801 to $41,556.

In fact, all legislators, judges and statewide elected officials will still get at least a 2.3 percent salary increase effective Sept. 1. They enjoyed a similar raise last September.

The salaries for statewide elected officials, judges and legislators are set by an independent citizen salary commission. State attorneys say the salary process is set in the state constitution, so there was no way for 2002 lawmakers to alter the salary increases for themselves or other elected officials.

The salary increase during a time of state cutbacks, coupled with the condescending and arrogant dining room letter by the smug senators, drives another wedge between lawmakers and the men and women they were elected to represent.

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The Olympian Copyright 2002

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