The Big One's Yet to Come

Today's Providence Journal has more on the supplemental budget. There's some reason to hope that the General Assembly will manage to avoid making things worse — although without bold changes, treading water could simply mean drifting further out to sea. Here's the key part of the report, though:

The vote marks a significant step forward in the state government's struggle to close massive budget deficits that Governor Carcieri says have pushed Rhode Island to the brink of financial disaster.

But it was just a first step.

The package passed yesterday addresses only the deficit projected for the current fiscal year. It does little to address next year's estimated hole of $384 million, a number that state leaders largely agree will grow substantially when fiscal advisers examine state revenues next month.

This was an emergency lunge. We'll see what the debate looks like when it's not peppered with promises about "next year's budget."