Timeo Hominem Unius Libri (I fear men that have learned from a single book). -- St. Thomas Aquinas

State budget deficit: Our legislators were surprised this week with a much larger than expected budget deficit for the June 2003 - June 2005 biennium -- which was estimated up from $3 billion to $4.2 billion. As the table from the article shows, the money comes overwhelmingly from individual taxpayers (only 4% -- less than $1.1 billion of the total of $26.8 billion collected -- is generated from corporate franchise taxes).

The largest expenditure for the state (49.5% of the total expenditures of $27.1 billion) is on education -- 39.3% or $10.7 billion fpr K-12 and 10.2% or $2.8 billion for higher eduation. The next biggest expenditure category (25.0% of expenditures) is for health care and human services -- 17.8% or $4.8 billion for health care and 7.2% or $2.0 billion for Health and Human Services. The state also expends 15.2% or $4.1 billion on "other," which I'm guessing is mostly for physical infrastructure requirements (roads, buildings, bridges, debt service, etc.). Finally, the state provides 10.3% or $2.8 billion of its expenditures in the form of aid to local governments, for things like state mandates, affordable housing assistance, administration, etc. Where will the cuts come from to make up this huge deficit? I don't even want to think about it yet. It has to sink in for a day or two.

Back on the soapbox: the sum of budget deficits in 2001 and 2002 (estimated, excluding reserves) is $2.75 billion. The surpluses in 1998, 1999 and 2000 add up to just a bit more than that so, effectively, we spent our surpluses (particularly on Gov. Ventura's givebacks to taxpayers, which he has had the audacity to call "Jesse checks") that should have gone into our plans for the future. Dammit, I have been harping on this for three years, but at this point you have to actively avoid this information not to get the point: Gov. Shit-for-Brains made a big mess and now is leaving it for the rest of us to clean up. The taxpayer rebate checks for 1999 and 2000 were misguided at best, and a crass political maneuver for certain. The deficit now stands at $1,000 for every living state resident (not every taxpayer, but every man, woman and child in the state).

Another driveway moment: Caedmon is 50 years old, a fact thankfully brought to me by NPR Morning Edition's Renee Montagne. If you don't know of Caedmon, they produce spoken-word recordings and have recorded the greatest poets of the 20th century, including Yeats, Auden, Pound, Eliot, Dylan Thomas, Frost, and many others. Amazingly, you can get a sort-of "Greatest Hits of Caedmon," called The Caedmon Poetry Collection: A Century of Poets Reading Their Work, for $21. Which is exactly what I'm going to do!

Dorm porn followup: Get this! The Indiana University chancellor says he won't stand for "the school's cream and crimson IU trademark [being] violated." Allowing women (and men) at IU to be in a porno movie on campus is okay, but don't you dare touch our school logo! (Note: I am okay with consenting adults appearing in adult films, but there has to be a more appropriate place to film it than a public university.)

Sad story: A 42 year old woman gets a year in jail for having sex with a 15 year old boy (which was probably the highlight of his life up to this point). Lots of extenuating circumstances. Clearly, this judge and justice system is not interested in addressing the underlying problem.

Next, we'll be "the competition": I went to school with Erich Mische, and he's a good enough guy and all (although he did make the jump from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party when his boss, Sen.-elect Coleman, made the flip-flop). But calling constituents "customers" is taking it a bit too far, Erich.