Just sayin

The old grey lady warns today:

New Jersey’s problems are magnified by a long history of irresponsible borrowing and spending. In a self-destructive gimmick, the state seriously underfunded its pension plan and used the money to pay for current spending programs. As a result, Mr. Corzine said, the state’s annual debt service now exceeds what it invests in higher education.

Fiscal Year 2008 operating budget spending on these items for Massachusetts? $1.77 billion on debt service versus $950 million on the UMASS system and the state and community colleges.

Update: The wiseguys over at Beyond Red & Blue laud my strong support for public higher education in the above post. I was hoping to focus more on our relative debt level… 😉