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Oooh That Smell
States are in a state of crisis as the golden calf that was the new economy melts away in the July heat, revealing a hollow interior. According to one distraught legislator, it’s veal bad. Budgets based on the calf idol have dipped into the red. Tax collections are down and people (for some reason) seem to be averse to voluntarily making up the difference. What’s a poor state to do? They couldn’t help themselves. Though
the states claimed they didn’t have a problem, the warning signs were
there. Tennessee
was emblematic. It
started “expensive state programs that reduced classroom size and
expanded the Medicaid program, known as TennCare, to provide better
services to more people.” Tennessee
should have known better. Once
a state starts servicing people to support its habit, things have gotten
way out of hand. Tax
junkies “in almost every statehouse from California to Maine” spent
most of the last decade strung out on fees and excise taxes, not to
mention the highly addictive income and capital gains taxes.
California’s Governor, Gray Davis, was notorious for
“thriving on tax collections from high-rolling investors and tech
workers.” It was hard not
to. Taxes flowed like water
and the junkies, be they governors, legislators, or the run-of-the-mill
skid row bureaucrats, could spend and spend and spend as long as they
looked like they were in control. After
a while, only an alert few could see through the mask of a junkie lying
about his or her problem with heavy levies.
The rest of us were enablers. But
now there may be hope. Some
of the states have just about hit rock bottom.
It might be enough to finally make them admit they have a
problem, for only in doing so will they take the first step to recovery.
Budget cuts are the next. Tennessee
is making progress. Both major gubernatorial candidates have sworn off the
confiscatory narcotic and have even pledged to take the next step.
“Proposed budget cuts include laying off 6,400 state employees
and 8,000 school employees, plus shortening the school year, raising
college tuition and limiting enrollment.
Some state parks would close.
State-funded health insurance [the opium of the masses] would be
eliminated for 200,000 Tennesseans.
And departments that promote tourism and development would be
axed.” This hurdle will
be the most difficult to get beyond.
Peer pressure groups won’t rest until the candidates fall off
the wagon. Despite
the ever-present danger of backsliding, another positive sign is that
sales of Excedrin have been brisk since the crisis started.
Principal Phyliss Robinson of the Stone Creek Elementary School
in Nashville is typical of the addicts.
“It gives me a headache to even think about it.
We’re used to having some cuts but nothing to this extent.”
Doctors and nurses are monitoring the group for other signs of
withdrawal. Failure, unfortunately, is an option. The heat of a taxed up recipient of fellow citizens’ money can be hotter than any day in July. It can overwhelm if you’re not prepared for it. Until we find a cure for the state, we should do the compassionate thing and help these states kick the habit.
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