Brad Bumsted of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review does a nice job of putting the state budget process into the right perspective in his latest column.

Gov. Ed Rendell and House Democrats want to increase state spending (and raise taxes) even though the current budget is more than $3 billion in the red and tens of thousands of Pennsylvanians are out of work.

Republican lawmakers want minimal cuts in state spending and have introduced a $27 billion balanced budget.

From Busted's latest column:

What's at stake between $27 billion and $29 billion is quite simply whether you pay higher state taxes. And talk is aplenty of a state income tax increase to close a projected $3.2 billion deficit.

Rendell's propaganda campaign lays the groundwork for an income tax boost by pointing out all of the "devastating" consequences of spending less.

Busted also questions the use of taxpayer dollars by Rendell to promote his deficit, higher-taxes budget.

"How many hundreds of employee hours and state tax dollars went into preparing these news releases, which are all aimed at spending even more of your tax dollars?" Busted asks.

And how much did the recent propaganda bus tour orchestrated by Rendell cost taxpayers?

Read the full column at the newspaper's Web site.