The Good and/or the Possible. That’s the nature of the choices lawmakers, businesses, and private residents are faced with these days. Good isn’t always possible; possible isn’t always good. You’re lucky if you kill two birds with one stone.
So, when lawmakers reconvene the week of March 16th, they will have roughly eight weeks, if the proposed May 8th adjournment date holds up, to craft the new budget and allocate stimulus monies. And new revenue forecasts will come out in April, which will add another level of complexity to the process.
This is not the time for stimulus monies to further delay the necessary decisions that must be made around the size and scope of state government, though convincing people will be hard. Seven hundred million dollars is intoxicating to think of, so one can’t help but feel that the demon has been held at bay for a little bit. But we’ll hate ourselves in the morning if we go out on a bender and then wake up in two years to find we’re not better off.