wsfam
Smitty, It is true that the State Budget has risen over the last 15 years BUT the State Population has grown by 50% in the last 25. If you look at state spending per capita, it has stayed almost exactly the same for over a quarter of a century. Some of the issue has, in fact, been growth. When the State gives tax break incentives to large developments or corporations to build, and THEN people move to that location, the development of schools, roads, etc. is left to the State. The hope is that the taxes generated from those folks will be more than what was spent and offered in the incentives, but that is not always the case. Certainly over the last few years health and human services expenditures and unemployment are also way up contributing to the recent rises. The Iman (sp?) initiatives also made it harder for the state tax revenues to keep pace with population growth. This is a multi-layered and complicated issue, and I understand that there are multiple sides of the big government/small government debate. I would hope no matter where you land on that debate that you believe that people should not be allowed to die in our society for lack of money. Having worked with vulnerable folks for many, many years I second some of the remarks above. It often takes one bad illness to bankrupt a family. This could be you or someone you love at any given point in time. YOU sit across from them and tell them that they can’t have their insulin. YOU sit across from them and tell them that their son’s schizophrenia meds that have kept him stable for years are no longer available. YOU tell them that they can’t have glasses to function. Seriously. I challenge you to be the one to do it. Because I have been reading these letters with people over the last week and watching their faces crumble. I sit with them absolutely helpless as they ask “What am I going to do?” It is heartbreaking and unfair and unjust. And if anyone doesn’t see that, than their heart is made of colder and harder stuff than mine.