This Times story about the drastic budget cuts state and local governments are enacting has been on my mind since I read it last week. In better times, most people could comfortably advocate for spending cuts because they had little reason to worry that those cuts would personally affect them. But now that school weeks are being shortened, street lights are being turned off, and buses are no longer running, the consequences of budget shortfalls are more noticeable to people who never previously considered the role of government in their lives. Most people aren’t going to be happy to pay more taxes to balance those budgets, but they also aren’t going to be happy to live in the midst of crumbling infrastructure (which in turn chases away the employers with the good-paying jobs).
Minnesota has weathered the recession better than many states, but we could be forced to take equally drastic measures if we can’t come up with a responsible solution for our fiscal woes. I like to think that we value our quality of life too much to allow our state to descend into go-it-alone individualism, but then I remember that one of our major political parties nominated a person with just such a philosophy to run for governor. And I start to wonder if I should enjoy my publicly funded one-on-one nursing care while I can.
