The Great Recession is continuing to have an affect on the quality of life for U.S. citizens. This time, the death knell is being rung for a plethora of state services. The beginning of July marked the new fiscal year for states and with it came another reckoning between what we all want and what we can afford.

It’s become a familiar comeuppance that started on the personal level when so many Americans had to come to terms with wanting a mansion and being able to afford a nice rancher. In the end, those who were unable to let go of their fantasies and turn toward a more fiscally responsible reality ended up watching their home being sold at auction.

It’s amazing how powerful the desire is in America to put on a good show for the neighbors rather than do what’s best for our immediate family. We have such a collective case of low self-esteem that we’re willing to ignore very basic common sense about how much something costs and how much money we can reasonably predict we’ll earn in the foreseeable future.

State governments have adopted the same kind of magical monetary policies and the bill has now come due in capitals all across the land.

A long list of projects and social services put in place during the heyday combined with continuing erosion in tax revenue has left 48 out of 50 states staring down a budget shortfall.

As of the start of the month five states, Connecticut, Illinois, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Ohio were still trying to figure out how to close the gap. California approved a budget in February but due to a $24 billion dollar shortfall from a continuing decrease in tax revenues they have had to go back and take another look. The state expects to begin issuing IOU’s in coming weeks in lieu of payment.

All of the other states have put into place stopgap measures that will only hold things together for a few weeks at best. After that some tough decisions will finally have to be made.

This is a politician’s worst nightmare but the seeds of the problem were planted with full knowledge of what was likely to occur. Most of them just hoped it would happen far enough in the future that they’d be retired. New programs and expansion of services have been added to budgets over the years and were based on the theory that taxes would only increase as land values rose.