Maybe the commonwealth could take the Toscanini's approach and pass the hat to cover our deficit? Anyone have a hat big enough for 1.3 billion dollars?

The battle for our scarce fiscal year 2009 resources begins tomorrow when Governor Deval Patrick releases his budget. This could get interesting--well, relatively interesting--as two notable critics of Patrick's agenda have already been identified, and they happen to be the first two steps on the flowchart that is the Massachusetts budgetary process. Let's get ready to stumble!

Gov. Patrick, who has put a lot of his chips out on the table with a controversial casino plan, tipped his hand on Saturday when his secretary of Administration and Finance, Leslie Kirwan, said he had included $124 million from what he hopes will be casino licensing fees in his budget. This move is inherently provocative, because Massachusetts legislators have yet to vote on casinos and the House of Representatives seems poised to defeat them when they do come to a vote.

The House, led by Speaker Sal DiMasi, denied--by an almost 2-1 margin--an attempt last year to put slot machines in dog and horse racetracks. The casino plan then is like being cut off by the bartender while ordering a Bud Light and requesting a bottle of Johnny Walker instead.

Representative Robert DeLeo, whose Ways and Means committee gets the first crack at Patrick's budget, said, “Forget the cart, this is putting the entire wagon train before the horse. Moreover, even if this money did become available this year--which is a big if--it may not be there the next year.” These massive issues aside, none of this addresses how the rest of the expected billion dollar plus deficit will be covered.

If Massachusetts needs a new non-gambling source of revenue, we should charge a fare as people climb onto the Celtics bandwagon. As long as the MBTA has nothing to do with it.