The New York Times used its editorial megaphone Thursday to call federal attention to what could be a major drag on economic recovery -- the budget-balancing being done this spring by states like Minnesota. It noted that in the month of March alone, America's state and local governments shed 9,000 jobs through fiscal belt-tightening moves.
States are constitutionally obliged to keep spending and revenues in equilibrium. The federal government is not. That's why the feds must do most of the heavy lifting to boost the economy, and why those efforts ought to include softening the blows to the economy that states will be otherwise obliged to inflict.
Minnesota stands to gain $400 million in additional federal help in the 2011 fiscal year under legislation now pending in Congress. Without that federal helping hand, thousands more teachers, health care and social workers, and law enforcement officers will lose their jobs in Minnesota next year. Not only will their lost wages hamper recovery from the recession, but their lost contributions will diminish government's capacity to do the public work needed for a healthy economy in years to come. Congress should act soon after returning from its spring recess.
