Yesterday marked the beginning of a special session of the legislature, in which legislators must balance the 2011-13 budget.  In today’s Wall Street Journal, a reminder that Washington is not alone in this:

State governments are confronting a combined $47 billion gap between projected revenue and costs for the fiscal year that starts in July, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning think tank. While that figure is high historically, it is less than half the budget shortfall that states confronted a year ago and down from $191 billion three years ago. For the coming year 29 states have projected deficits; that is down from 42 a year ago and 46 the year before. . . .

Some economists say government should boost spending to bolster the recovery. . . . But other economists more critical of government spending say the fiscal challenges of recent years helped states by forcing them to confront long-termproblems, such as rising pension and health-care costs, that they had avoided for years. Some states have restructured their worker pension and health-care plans to reduce projected spending.

Dealing with long-term, structural problems is something we’ve been saying for awhile.  (See our recent briefs on the 2012 supplemental proposals and unfunded commitments, and the Thrive Washington series.)