“A guy shouldn’t have to see geese swimming across his field.”

– Boundary County farmer Bill Michalk, after rising waters in the Kootenai River Valley left his land with a pond that wasn’t there before.

“It was the right thing to do. If we’re going to have government, we’re going to have to pay for it, or we should do away with it.”

– Whitman County Commissioner Jerry Finch, after a King County judge overturned Initiative 747, which voters approved in 2001 to limit property tax collection increases to 1 percent a year.

“This was a scrimmage. The big game is in the state Supreme Court.”

– Initiative organizer Tim Eyman, who led the drive to put Initiative 747 on the ballot, predicting that the measure will be reinstated on appeal.

“Why would anyone ever pay a dollar to park a car if the penalty for not paying was only a dime?”

– A statement from Firefighters Local 29, protesting that the $80,000 fine suggested by Spokane Mayor Dennis Hession is not severe enough for American Medical Response’s overbilling of ambulance customers.

“If they want to settle for $5,000 or peppercorns that’s their right. We’re not forcing anything down their throats.”

– Spokane Roman Catholic Diocese attorney Greg Arpin, defending the phone contacts diocesan lawyers have made with people who say they are victims of priest sex abuse but may yet not be represented by legal counsel.

“Members, this is not the time to go wobbly. Let’s give victory a chance.”

– Rep. Gil Gutknecht, R-Minn., during an acrimonious floor debate on an unsuccessful resolution to force withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

“If we think anybody gets to be Bill Gates, I don’t think that’s a realistic hypothesis.”

– Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, squelching the notion that someone will replace the Redmond company’s multibillionaire co-founder as he steps away from a day-to-day role to focus on his charitable interests.

“It’s a great day to be a budget director.”

– Washington state budget director Victor Moore, who had just announced that state revenues will be nearly $1 billion more over the next three years than previously thought.

“I think in my 22 years, this is the most bizarre case I’ve ever seen.”

– Canyon County, Idaho, Coroner Vicki DeGeus-Morris, who this week will perform an autopsy on a woman whose body was found in a Nampa house after its severed head had been thrown from a pickup involved in a fatal crash Thursday in Boise.

“This isn’t about proof in the court of law. This is about an ethical standard. I wish that the White House would do the same.”

– Minority House Leader Nancy Pelosi of California, after a bipartisan vote in which the House kicked Louisiana Rep. William Jefferson, her fellow Democrat, from the House and its Ways and Means Committee because of his involvement in a bribery scandal.