My Arkansas News Bureau column this week took state legislators to task for cutting taxes without first cutting spending. My point: With the state already owing the federal government $330 million for unemployment benefits, the responsible path would be to cut spending, pay down the state debt, and then cut taxes – in that order. You never know when unexpected expenses may occur.

Such as the $23.5 million legislators learned about yesterday that the state will have to pay in state employee salaries because the calendar squeezes in an extra pay period this year. It happens every 10 years, and of course, the calendar we use today was invented more than 400 years ago, so this shouldn’t have come as a surprise.

But it did, which is why responsible adults leave extra leeway when they think about reducing their revenues.

Read more about the $23.5 million shortfall here.

And if you’re interested, here is my column from Wednesday.