The news that Oregon state government spent $450,000 more than it should have in one year might not, of itself, raise anyone’s hackles.

After all, the state spends several billion dollars each year.

We can scarcely envision a worse time for the Baker City Council to make the vital choice confronting its seven members.

Councilors need to hire a city manager.

Nobody enjoys paying more when they fill their car with gas or register it at the DMV.

But neither ordeal seems quite so onerous when you know the extra money will pay for something you use.

Scotland, it turns out, has “rules of compassion.”

But apparently the Scots not only pronounce “compassion” in a way that sounds foreign to our American ears, but they define the word quite differently as well.

Last week the Scottish government released Libyan Abdel Baset al-Megrahi from prison. He is the only person convicted of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270.

Scottish officials justified their decision by pointing out that al-Megrahi has advanced prostate cancer and likely will die within months. Scottish “rules of compassion” compelled officials to release the terrorist.

Having a wildfire destroy your home is bad.

But this is worse: You don’t have insurance.

Fires burn more rural homes than they used to. This is hardly surprising — there are both more fires and more rural homes.

Nor has this trend slipped unnoticed past the probing eyes of insurance adjusters.

We beg your pardon.

We have a confession to make.

We’re afraid that we’ve contributed, through our news coverage, to the belief that Oregon’s state government is just about, figuratively speaking, down to its last nickel.

But now we have conclusive proof that this isn’t so.

In the past week or so, the state has created one job and filled a second that had been vacant for several years.

The combined annual salary for the pair? About $220,000.

A trifling amount in a budget that exceeds $10 billion, right?

But wait, there’s more:

The state didn’t advertise either job.

There were no candidates except the people hired.

And both of the new employees are state legislators.

It seems that if we want to continue to assign a Baker City Police officer to work at the high school and middle school, we’re going to have to foot the bill with local dollars.

And this we should do.

The school resource officer program is a resounding success.

We doubt we were alone in feeling overwhelmed when we read the numbers Congress and President Obama were tossing around last winter during the debate about the federal stimulus package.

Even Bill Gates probably has to adjust his mental calculator when he’s confronted with, say, $787 billion.

That amount seems to us more a conceptual number — like the speed of light — than a real one.

But now tiny droplets of that monumental sum are trickling into places such as Baker County, and in denominations we can easily comprehend.

For instance: $113,000.

It’s too bad hundreds of people had to get salmonella, but apparently widespread diarrhea is sometimes required to provoke Congress.

We’re pleased, though, to see that our representatives seem determined to pass food safety laws that better protect the public from salmonella and other potentially fatal afflictions.

The Baker City Council has had a rough summer.

Councilors seem to be getting along better recently, however — on July 28 they unanimously approved the first two readings of a pair of ordinances that had provoked arguments this spring.