Lynch's Budget: The Wolf Is At The State House Door

Veteran State House reporter and editor John Milne has an interesting take on New Hampshire's budget crisis in this week's column in the Caledonian Record:

As Gov. John H. Lynch called for spending cuts and layoffs in last Thursday's message laying out a $3 billion general fund budget over the next two years, I sat in the back of Representatives' Hall and in my mind conjured up the image of a family, frantic because a bill collector's at the door.

Mom stalls the repo man while the kids rummage through coat pockets and bureau drawers, looking for quarters and dimes that might have fallen under the socks. Dad thumbs through the telephone book, hoping that he can get his rich uncle to pay the money he's promised. He's thinking about buying a couple of lottery tickets in hopes of hitting the jackpot. The youngest daughter finds a coffee can, long forgotten on a closet shelf, containing a couple of $20 bills.

They might manage to pay the collector enough to keep him quiet, but the family had to put off paying other bills. They think, maybe, they can get Dad's uncle to directly pay those other creditors. They've stopped buying lattes at Starbucks, even tall coffees at Dunkin's, and now agree to stop getting pizza on Friday nights.

All this time their teen-aged son is playing his video games and listening to music, oblivious to the frenzy around him.