"Some of it has been favoritism, some of it has been empire-building, and some of it has been `Well, we think they should have higher status.'"

-Tim Welch, spokesman for the Washington Federation of State Employees, on the union's theory of why the state's Washington Management Service has grown more than tenfold over the past decade.

Gov. Christine Gregoire said this week that she wants to cut 1,000 middle-management jobs, many of them from the Washington Management Service. A state study three years ago found that more than half the managers don't directly "manage" anyone.

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