Bay State Blues

State government in Massachusetts is running on fumes, finally cobbling together a budget two weeks into the new fiscal year. Presented with a $28.2 billion dollar budget, Governor Deval Patrick attacked it with a rusty jackknife, whittling away $122.5 million in earmarks. "We've got to prepare now for economic troubles ahead," Patrick said at a signing ceremony yesterday. "Our present circumstances demand increased restraint." Credit the governor with facing up to the new reality.

The budget takes half a billion from the Commonwealth's rainy-day fund and tacks on a buck to the cigarette tax. Even so, the business-funded Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation foresees $1 billion of red ink in 2009, with capital gains tax revenues drying up and federal healthcare reimbursements falling short. Patrick himself realizes that more cuts may be needed, and he has asked lawmakers for the same authority to make mid-year cuts that was accorded Governor Mitt Romney in 2003. "Granting that authority now, before the end of the legislative session," said Patrick, "enables us to respond quickly and responsibly in the event of a serious downtown."

Troubles? Downturn? It appears that longtime economic adviser Rosy Scenario has been given the pink slip.