The Seattle Times editorializes that because the Washington wine industry is so successful--it's now selling $628 million worth of product a year--you and I ought to pitch in and give it $250,000. Huh?

The industry wants the quarter-mil to expand its genetic plant bank, or "mother block." A good cause, but why can't this fabulously successful industry pick up the tab itself? This looks like corporate welfare, pure and simple, and is just the sort of thing we don't need in lean economic times. The sad thing is, the only argument in Washington is whether the big corporations and wealthy independents who make wine in Washington will get $250,000 (House version of the pending legislation) or $150,000 (Senate version).