Sooooo... in 2008, state employees ended up getting no raise at all. In 2010, state employees actually took a 3 percent pay cut while absorbing a 25 percent increase in their share of their health insurance premiums. But in the 2012 contract negotiations, by golly, this is finally the year that "Gov. Chris Gregoire and the representatives of the state ... cannot give away the store."

I do not think that phrase means what the Seattle Times editorial board thinks it means.