It's a significant bump, there's no question."

Queensbury town Supervisor Dan Stec said about the contract.

No kidding.

"I'm not tickled by it," he added.

The taxpayers sure won't be either.

Sometime today, Warren County supervisors will likely defy reason and common sense when they vote to approve a new contract for the Police Benevolent Association. While the state is threatening to cut back on funding for local governments and school districts, while the Wall Street collapse is killing the state's economy and tax base, and while ordinary taxpayers are struggling every day just to make their mortgages and bills, Warren County supervisors are about to hand the police union an early Christmas present.

How on earth, in this economic climate, can any responsible government official justify giving any taxpayer-paid employee a contract that includes a 7 percent pay raise in the first year, then 3.5 percent annually on top of that for the next three years?

Supervisors are meeting at 10 a.m. today to vote on this pact. If you want them to act, call them now, while you're still upset by this. While you're still a little grumpy. By the time you get home from work tonight, supervisors will have already rubber-stamped this turkey, just in time for Thanksgiving. If you want to stop them, there's no time like the present.

This is not the time for government officials to be generous with any employee, even those who might deserve it and who may have been unfairly underpaid for the last few years. Businesses aren't being generous.

Workers in the private sector are either losing their jobs or are seeing their pay and benefits stagnate or decline.

Yet they're the ones who have to pay the price when government officials hand out these kinds of contracts.

Go ahead. Raise your hand if the company you work for has guaranteed that your pay will increase at least 18 percent over the next four years. Anyone? OK. Now raise your hand if you got a 7 percent raise, retroactive to the beginning of this year. No? Raise your hand if you plan to expect a 3.5 percent raise each of the next three years. Hmmm. We're beginning to sense a pattern.

What makes this even more galling is that the deal will be approved without the public having all the details prior to the vote. Warren County's leaders apparently don't believe the public should be told the details of a contract until after it's a done deal. If this contract is so fair for county taxpayers, as some contend, then what do supervisors have to fear from a full public airing of the terms prior to the vote?

Once contract negotiations have been completed, as they are in this case since the PBA has already voted to approve the pact, then there is no longer a justification for government leaders to keep the information secret.

Yet all the taxpaying public will know about this contract prior to today's scheduled vote is what few details the union and county leaders have chosen to release.

This contract will cost taxpayers a significant amount of money and will have a direct impact on taxes for years to come.

Warren County supervisors owe it to their constituents to release the tentative contract to the citizens before they vote, so they have time to digest the details and to offer their opinions in a public forum.

It's the taxpayers' money. They have a right to know how it's being spent.

Local editorials represent the opinion of The Post-Star editorial board, which consists of Publisher Rick Emanuel, Editor Ken Tingley, Editorial Page Editor Mark Mahoney and citizen representative Robin Temple.