"Some animals are more equal than others."

That description of George Orwell's utopia-turned-bad in Animal Farm is eerily appropriate to Colorado's state government today, now that we've learned that former Gov. Bill Owens changed state personnel policies to benefit his appointees.

Two years ago, Owens made a little-noticed change to policies governing sick and vacation time, allowing department heads - though not their staffs - to cash in all their unused time upon leaving their posts. No cap, no limits. How thoughtful of him to look ahead at his appointees' eventual departures and ensure they would have a comfortable cushion on which to land.

And a comfortable cushion it is, indeed. For example, Marva Hammons, the former director of the Department of Human Services, received $55,528 - more than one-third the value of her annual salary, representing 20 weeks of unused sick and vacation time.

Twenty weeks! If a CEO accepted that kind of perk, shareholders would revolt.

Bear in mind that these appointees are the best-paid employees in state government, better paid even than the governor. The workers in the trenches who report to them - CDOT's snow plow drivers, public health nurses, corrections officers and many others - can count on no such generosity upon leaving their jobs. The amount of unused sick and vacation leave they can cash in is capped: for every four hours of unused leave, they get paid for one. That's not an unreasonable policy, and it's similar to what many private businesses do. So why does it apply only to lower-paid state employees but not their bosses?

That's not the only troubling aspect of this uneven policy. The timing of the decision was ironic. Owens announced this favor for his department heads in December 2004, one month after Referendum C passed and after he had spent the better part of a year telling business leaders and voters that Colorado was in dire fiscal straits. After demonstrating politically difficult fiscal prudence, somehow he saw no contradiction in establishing a policy that turned state government into a cash cow for his appointees.

In the meantime, the employees who report to these fortunate executives continued to sacrifice their own pay and benefits. In three of the past five years, money set aside for employee pay-for-performance increases was taken away by the legislature to fund other state projects. When employees did get increases, those amounted to a total of 1.8 percent - less than $12 per paycheck for many. And last year, state employees voluntarily gave up a portion of their current take-home pay to fund their pension, which had been decimated by the recession.

It's galling to watch employees sacrifice while their department chiefs give up nothing. But even more offensive is that this policy was designed simply to encourage appointees to stay in their jobs until the end of Owens' term. Is it really necessary to bribe senior officials to get them to stay in their jobs?

None of Owens' predecessors seemed to feel that necessity. And it seems unlikely that Gov. Bill Ritter will share it. It is encouraging that the new executive director of the Department of Personnel and Administration and the legislature's Joint Budget Committee have reacted swiftly, calling for new rules.

Unfortunately, it's not enough simply to ask DPA to rewrite its rules. Enacting a clear policy directive in statute would send a compelling message that Coloradans will not stand for such cynical behavior from future leaders. Legislators have a responsibility to use the power of their position to protect taxpayers from misuse of public money. Let's shut down Colorado's own Animal Farm.

Mark Schwane is executive director of the Colorado chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents state and local government employees throughout Colorado.