Budget Season

It's state budget season again!

How silly a thing to say--it never ends. My study of mid-cycle adjustments in Maryland and Virginia this year is providing grist for the writing mill in the Senate chapters. From low-response expenditure side maneuvers like hiring freezes and one-day furloughs to big-ticket transformation like "right-sizing" government Chiles-style, it's a heady time for many a budget analyst.

The Bush I recession, or whatever you call the 1991 national economic downturn, was a bump in the road compared to our current fifty-car pileup.

Here is how Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley (D) is dealing with the situation, for example.