Tightening our belts like drunken sailors

The favored buzzphrase in Frankfort this year has been about "tightening our belts" with a tough budget situation.

An LRC source gave me the following information in exchange for a promise that his/her identity would not be divulged (seriously!). It's the official authorized bonding limit for the 2009-10 budget years.

You won't believe it.

We will add $1,508,494,000 to the state's credit card in our belt-tightening biennium. That's one and a half billion dollars, for the math-challenged. With interest payments, you can double that to $3 billion.

Thank your grandchildren.

And we already have the 3rd highest debt-to-GDP ratio of all states in the nation. Thank goodness for Massachusetts and New York!