CROOKSTON, MINN. —  When I was a 6-year-old kid back in New York, one of my favorite games was kick the can. My favorite place to play was in the alley across the street.

The alley was actually the back of the retail storefronts and restaurants facing the street, so there were plenty of dumpsters and consequently, an endless supply of cans. But equally important, the alley was actually several blocks long and ended at a dead end — so there was never any question when the game was over. When you hit the dead end, the game was done.

Kick the can is also a good description of what many believe the Minnesota Legislature has been doing with the state budget for the majority of the just-ended decade.

Beginning with a large budget deficit after the dot-com bubble and the 9-11 attacks, public officials have been regularly kicking our budget woes from biennium to biennium. The budget has been patched together with one-time funding fixes like the tobacco endowment and budget reserves, selected budget cuts to local governments, accounting shifts and most recently federal stimulus funds.

Conclusion is coming
The rationale for continually pushing Minnesota's budgetary troubles further into the future was the hope that by the time the bills actually came due, the state economy would be out of the doldrums and would once again be humming along. But like the alley's dead end back in New York, it's clear as this session proceeds that this game is reaching its conclusion.

The dead end actually came into view in December, when a state budget forecast documented a $1.2 billion shortfall for the remainder of the current biennium. We learned of a $240 million deficit for the remainder of fiscal year 2010 and a whopping $916 million deficit in fiscal year 2011, thereby erasing any rational hope that the state economy was on the verge of roaring back.

The most disturbing aspect of the forecast was that 72 percent of the projected deficit is from a loss of personal income tax revenues — further suggesting that the employment picture will remain tepid for some time to come. As is often said about income taxes, you don't have to pay them if you don't work (or can't find a job).

What about the fiscal year 2012-13 biennium? Surely by then the economy will have bounced back? Unfortunately, by continually shifting significant expenses from biennium to biennium, we have started each biennium with the debt of the past biennium. In addition, federal stimulus dollars will dry up at the end of fiscal year 2011. Accordingly, the budget picture actually worsens for the 2012-13 biennium, with the current forecast calling for a $5.4 billion deficit.

The 'Tom & Tom show'
It is not as if this current budget deficit caught everyone by surprise and couldn't have been foreseen. In fact, state economist Tom Stinson and state demographer Tom Gillaspy have preached about Minnesota's shorter-term economic cycles merging with longer-term demographic cycles for so long that many observers have come to name their regular presentations as the "Tom & Tom show."

Ironically, presentations by Stinson and Gillaspy have been a regular feature of the Legislature's annual policy conference at the beginning of each legislative session when legislators come together for a day to learn about the state's economic and demographic trends and overall outlook. Considering the way budget issues have been handled in recent years, you'd never guess that the "Tom & Tom show" has been a staple of this legislative event in each of the last three years.

As the Legislature addresses Minnesota's budget dilemma, let's vow to stop playing kick the can with the state budget.

Nothing to shift, no stimulus to bail us out
There are no more one-time fixes to be found, no more accounting shifts to be made and no more stimulus funds to bail us out.

It is time to finally have a serious discussion about how the state collects taxes and spends its revenues. Through such discussions, legislators might consider taxing some items or services that are currently exempt. But more likely as they prioritize state programs and expenditures, they may find some programs that can't be prioritized as high as they once were given current fiscal realities.

If we are to finally have a serious and honest discussion about how to fix the state's ballooning budget deficit, we will need to put partisan bickering aside and work together.

As we begin a new decade, Minnesotans deserve a more serious discussion of the issues if we are to finally begin solving the state's budget crisis.

Jack Geller is a professor and head of the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Minnesota, Crookston. Geller also serves as the director of the federally funded Economic Development Administration University Center at the university. This article was originally published in Prairie Business Magazine; it is republished with permission.