IN an ocean of bad financial news about state and local governments, promising results from a King County initiative deserve a boisterous shout-out.

Applause is due the county's health-care program, which shaved costs so significantly that County Executive Dow Constantine says he can reduce the county's health-care budget by $23 million in 2011 and $38 million in 2012.

Those are real dollars and they can save jobs and services in various parts of county government.

At the same time, the county should be ashamed of the alarming cost of ill-considered salary increases implemented years ago for sheriff's deputies. The bill is in and those raises, along with other contract provisions, cost the county dearly — $11.8 million last year. Imagine all the lost deputy positions and human-service programs that money could have bought.

The county's health plan was launched six years ago under then-County Executive Ron Sims. The idea is simple and could become a template for other governments seeking to save on soaring health costs.

The deputies' contract also was negotiated by Team Sims, so bad job, good job — all in one breath.

The county's creative health-care program is a winner on several levels. One component, the Healthy Incentives program, rewards employees for changing bad habits, such as by losing weight and quitting smoking. Obesity and smoking boost health costs. No maybe.

County employees are pushed to change behavior through regular assessments and action plans that help them eat smart, move more, stress less, drop pounds and quit tobacco. Constantine says smoking declined 40 percent among county employees; about 500 fewer employees smoke. About 2,000 workers have lost a total of 24 tons of weight.

That is a mountain of success. The county has already seen a reduction in claims for respiratory illnesses. Weight loss takes more time to show up but national studies indicate people with normal weight spend less on health care.

To be clear, county health-care costs have not stopped increasing. It would be hard to find a government that can say that. But the county has bent the stubborn upward trajectory of increases in a way other entities will emulate.

A good example is the use of generic drugs, which are considerably cheaper than brand-name drugs. County employees pay $7 per generic prescription; they used to pay $10. The co-pay for brand-name drugs doubled from $15 to $30. This adjustment saved $3 million in 18 months.

The county also moved more employees to the less-costly Group Health plan from the other county plan, KingCare, for an estimated savings of $4,000 a year per employee.

On the head-shaking, can-you-believe-the-audaciousness side of the ledger, outrageous 5-percent-for-five-years salary increases for the sheriff's deputies are a huge drag on the county general fund. An audit shows the county spends more per resident on sheriff's services than six other large counties. A 27 percent increase is way out of kilter with reality.

Of course, residents appreciate the dangerous work deputies perform, but they had a chance to be reasonable last year during the debate about the sales-tax increase and would not budge.

Shame on Sims for his role in the negotiations and shame on the deputies for not realizing the importance of giving some money back in this pernicious recession. Other county employees recognized that salaries are killing the budget and went without cost-of-living increases.

County budgeteers still need to find 3 percent efficiencies every year to maintain services. The goal is to reduce the cost of government without continually cutting the quality or quantity of services.

For once, the county budget outlook is not as dire as the state's. When Constantine announces his spending plan Monday, county residents will benefit from the hard work and innovation of the health-care plan but struggle to compensate for the bad karma and ridiculous costs of the deputies' contract.