CWU budget: why no official concern from county?

One of the things I talked about this summer and fall was CWU's impact on our county economy, and how surprised I have been at the lack of concern shown by county commissioners about CWU's budget cuts. Let's look at the three regional comprehensive universities in Washington.

WWU (2367 employees*) is the largest employer in Whatcom county, but the county has a remarkably diverse economy. WWU employs about 1.2% of the population of Whatcom county.

EWU (1948 employees*) doesn't even make the list of top ten employers in Spokane county, which has a population about ten (10!) times larger than Kittitas county's. EWU employs about 0.4% of the population of Spokane county.

CWU (1815 employees*) is the largest employer by far in Kittitas county. (The Ellensburg School District is #2 with fewer than 400 employees.) CWU employs a whopping 4.5% of people in Kittitas county!

It's clear that budget cuts at WWU and EWU, as upsetting as they might be to their on-campus communities, will have little real effect on the economies of their counties. But budget cuts at CWU will have a big effect on our county's economy.

So I'm left wondering: why have our county commissioners not expressed concern about CWU budget cuts? It seems to me they should be actively raising this issue with both our legislators and in testimony to relevant committees in Olympia. (As I mentioned in an earlier post, building more buildings doesn't count, for many reasons including the fact that adding buildings increases operating expenses and doesn't help the county economy once they're completed.)

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*2009 employee numbers, available from the state Office of Financial Management.