In response to the July 13 article about "County Council restores some pay to 11 managers": Good for Barbara Brenner for taking a stand. This is an environment of recessionary times and high government debt. Higher fuel costs are being passed on to consumers in the form of higher costs of living in general. We in the private sector (who support those in the public sector) are taking pay cuts, working shorter hours, have non-paid holidays, etc.. As Brenner says, these county managers are being paid well. Yes, they had agreements when they went to work. The rest of us did too. We all have to share in this deficit/recessionary period together. We all have a private household budget we have to adhere to, because when we are out of money, we are out of money. Is the county government running a surplus? If so, a tax cut or a better yet, a paydown of the climbing government debt may be a more prudent way to spend this money. I agree, reimbursement of the IRS rate for mileage and direct cost reimbursement is fine. Let us remember, we in the private sector are willing to make sacrifices to help our government pay down its tremendous debt, but not if our government pays (wages and benefits), significantly higher than we can get in the private sector. Use good sense and keep our support, not build our resentment.

Nicki Bailey

Bellingham