The proposal to institute a lag pay policy for Cayuga County's workers may well be, as some proponents have argued, a smart business practice often used in the private sector.

Under lag pay, workers essentially aren't paid for a small portion of their hours worked until after they end their employment, either voluntarily or involuntarily.

The move can free up some money in the short-term that can go toward paying expenses, and in today's economy, some added cash flow can be a good idea for any organization that needs to meet a regular payroll. The county must be careful, however, to manage the program so it doesn't get into trouble making the lag payments to the affected workers in the future.

Our bigger concern, though, is the plan to apply this to all non-bargaining employees, with the glaring exception of elected and appointed officials. In other words, it wouldn't apply to the very people making the decision to take money out of county paychecks.

It's sort of like Gov. David Paterson calling on the rank-and-file state workers to give up their raises while he doles them out to his closest aides.

It's also similar to the Legislature's existing policy to pay themselves mileage reimbursements for coming to the county office building to do their jobs. No one else gets paid for their daily commute.

The lag pay plan has been agreed to by the sheriff's deputies and corrections officers unions, and the county is trying to negotiate it into the deal with other bargaining units. If those groups agree to the change, that's their prerogative.

But non-bargaining workers get no choice in the matter, so it would only be fair for the people who do have the choice to live with the consequences.