Now that our Legislature has taken care of one of their top priorities in passing the Gay Civil Rights law that is already covered by existing law, what's next on the Priority List?

Let’s review that Priority List:

1. Helping Portland land a Major League sports franchise.

2. Saving the lives of those irresponsible drivers by making it illegal to use a hand-held cell phone.

3. Enacting enabling legislation to "blow" the reserve gained from over-taxation of the citizenry.

4. My personal favorite, changing the current Citizen Legislature that is now part-time to a Full-Time Body of Solons working their little fingers to the bone for least twice their current salary and per diem on high priority items such as those already mentioned.

Given the history we have experienced by "trying" to reduce the size of King County government with cutting the number of King County Council positions from 13 to nine, we the paying public should immediately "roll over" and accept the Full-Time Legislative body.

The feeble attempt to reduce the size of King County government resulted in two of those council members whose districts were eliminated being elevated into equally if not higher paying non-competed King County positions. Oh, and the 10 staff members from each of the eliminated four council positions were picked up by the "new resized" council members.

So if well intentioned citizens were to foolishly carry this down sizing government proposal to its logical conclusion at the state level, it would bankrupt the state. Can you imagine how the intelligentsia in Olympia would react to a citizen referendum(s) that permitted the Legislature to only meet once every two years at one-half of their current salary and per diem as has been adopted by Oregon? Or even a legislative structure that was a unicameral (single house) chamber that met once every two years, and their staff would be employed for the same time frames as their bosses.

Gary L, Kennedy

Des Moines