Now, with many of those entities’ budgets more or less set for next year, the state is poised to virtually pull the rugs out from underneath them.

The prospect of cutting local government aid payments — something that could occur as soon as later this month — would almost certainly have a devastating effect on the state’s municipalities and counties.

With budget years set to end within days, there is almost no time to make up for whatever cuts may be made. And since as much as half of some cities’ budgets consist of state aid of some sort, there may often be very little fat to trim from (particularly since significant LGA cuts in 2003 made municipalities and counties take austere fiscal measures). Essential public services, in some instances, may become of a thing of the past if state LGA payments are slashed significantly.

Sure, we realize the state has a huge $4.8 billion deficit. But it reeks of unfairness to penalize other units of government for a problem they had little or nothing to do with.