Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett wants to give thousands of unionized county employees a double-digit pay hike next year even though the county is facing a $135 million budget shortfall without the pay increases. Pile on the fatter salaries, and the cost to taxpayers would increase an additional $105.3 million over the next two years. The math alone should doom this preposterous proposal.

Under the two-year contracts Leggett signed, some 5,000 county employees would get a 13.5 percent pay raise, most police officers would pocket a 14.7 percent salary increase, and more than half of the county’s firefighters would receive a 19.5 percent pay hike.