Budget doesn't solve deficit, just prolongs it

As I sat watching Governor Tim Pawlenty deliver his budget message, I was repeatedly reminded of the old saying: When your outgo exceeds your income, then your upkeep will be your downfall.
This governor has faced two multi-billion dollar budgetary shortfalls since first being elected in 2002 and he still doesn't appear to have grasped the reality that Minnesota has a structural defect in its overall fiscal configuration. Minnesota simply has too narrow an income stream to provide government services at the level its people want and need.
The governor's budget is nothing more than state government's version of Three-card Monte with the governor shilling for big business by proposing a huge and indefensible business tax cut in the worst economic catastrophe since the 1930s. No wonder that it's been widely noted that Pawlenty seems to be competing for history's designation as the Hoover of the 21st Century.
Governor Pawlenty has proposed an audacious and very risky budget. He is in a very tough spot. He feels the pressure to do something dramatic to outshine his number one rival for the Republican top slot in 2012, Alaska Governor Sarah Pailin. He figures that he got national recognition in 2008 by sticking to his "No New Taxes" pledge, so why change horses now?
Pawlenty's new budget is betting the farm on some highly questionable outcomes. He is depending heavily on gimmicks that have all the financial staying power of baling twine and bubble gum. For instance, he is expecting to balance his budget with a hoped-for one billion dollars from the sale of state appropriation bonds backed by future tobacco payments. In what is probably the biggest crossed-fingers budget solution of all, the governor is counting on a minimum of three billion dollars from the federal money-printing machine in Washington. Pawlenty is hoping that the state will get this multi-billion dollar gift from the economic stimulus program that only now has started moving through the Congress. Most disappointing of all is the certainty of future budget deficits. As this proposal now stands it's the same ol' same ol'; there is no structural change.
While the governor's budget is built on long-shot bets, many Capitol insiders believe he is also quietly counting on the DFL majority in the legislature to bail him out with a tax proposal. Such a budget-balancing move by the Democrats will have Pawlenty in the politically advantageous position of being able to serve up a veto on an issue of keen importance to the conservatives who control the Republican National Party.
Meanwhile, think about the philosophy of spending cuts vs. no new taxes. Think about it every time you hear of another neighbor losing their job or think about it when your aging parents can't get health coverage or when you read that your kid's tuition just went up again or that your neighborhood school is closing or that your kids have to learn in classrooms of 40 students per teacher.