Seeing the Future

This is coming south I'm sure:

Gov. Ed Rendell shut down the Pennsylvania government late Sunday over a budget stalemate with the Legislature that partly hinges on his energy plan for the state.

"I sincerely hope that this will be a one-day furlough, and I have reason for optimism," Rendell said at a news conference Sunday night, though he declined to be more specific.

Monday morning, the shutdown set in as the partisan battle of wills between the Democratic governor and Republicans who control the Senate entered the ninth day of the new fiscal year. Lacking an approved state budget, the state has lost the authority to spend money on nonessential services.

With Rendell's order, state workers deemed not critical to health or safety were furloughed without pay.

Pennsylvanians discovered they couldn't take driver's license tests. Highway maintenance and a range of permitting and licensing functions were stopped or severely curtailed. Even the lights that normally illuminate the Capitol dome are off, and state tourist attractions aren't open. Only critical services such as health care for the poor, state police and prisons remain in operation.

Unless Governor O'Malley and the General Assembly can get together on spending cuts, I wonder if the O'Malley Camp may wind up required to take such a draconian measure some time during 2008....

One question I always have to ask in times like these, though. If the services are so nonessential, why do governments have them at all?