A few years back, during the _last_ budget crisis, there was some comment about how far back we would have to roll the state budget to make it balance without new taxes. IIRC, this was in maybe 2004, and the rollback would have been all the way back to 2001. Crisis!!!
Look, I’m not getting any more value out of my government now than I was 7-8 years ago.
My proposal is simple. Roll every state budget back to 2004 levels. Look at the growth in benefit plans and decide how that has to fit within available revenue.
And when you see what that number is, then we’ll talk about what cuts to make, or what new taxes would be required to fill that shortfall.
Hint: the shortfall may well be smaller than the currently advertised budget crisis…
