PAYING JUVENILE OFFICERS

In keeping with Cape Girardeau County's wise fiscal ways, county officials told a state juvenile court panel last week that Missouri must either revise its guidelines for paying juvenile officers or let the counties determine how much they are to be paid. Since the county provides 95 percent of the funding for salaries of personnel in the juvenile-justice system, that seems good advice.

The guidelines, they said, pose a problem to Cape Girardeau County because the county can't afford to pay all county employees at the same rate. When the state dictates how much juvenile officers are to be paid, counties must cough up the bulk of their salaries, and other county employees may feel slighted.

The county also doesn't want the state demanding more training of juvenile officers and expecting the counties to pick up the added costs.

The juvenile-justice system is run by the state, not the counties, and the county officials' complaints are well taken. It is one more example of an unfunded mandate on local government.