Wednesday, April 27, 2005 - Page updated at 12:00 a.m.
Danny Westneat
New budget bobs on sea of gravy
By Danny Westneat Seattle Times staff columnist
It was when I stumbled across the $73,000 study of the merits of agricultural fairs that I realized drastic measures were in order.
It seems trivial in context of a $26 billion state budget. But it was late in my long slog through reading all 411 pages, and I snapped. I'd sighed over $469,000 for an ombudsman to settle fights at mobile-home parks.
I'd already recovered from the news we're spending $300,000 to market wine.
I'd tried to move past the idiocy of giving the man who presides over the state Senate, Lt. Gov. Brad Owen, a 37 percent budget boost so he can lobby the state Senate.
On page 258, though, I lost it. "Agricultural Fair Study, $73,000," it said. A bill report noted that county fairs have never had "their economic contributions quantified nor their social benefits evaluated."
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