“A barrel tapped at both ends”

That’s how Benjamin Franklin described New Jersey, a state dominated at its extremes by New York and Philadelphia. It also aptly describes the flow of Massachusetts tax receipts: they go to Boston and the Big Dig on one end and Springfield on the other:

Eighteen months after Governor Mitt Romney signed a bailout package to rescue this city, Springfield is teetering close to the edge of bankruptcy, with new estimates that municipal debt could grow to $100 million within six years.

Like an impatient parent, Beacon Hill asks: “What did you do with the money we gave you?”

Springfield has tapped roughly half of the $52 million loan the state approved in 2004. But as 2005 drew to a close, the state halted payments because the latest debt projections made it clear the city would have no hope of meeting its obligations for repayment on time.

But have no fear: we have found a scapegoat. Although Springfield has been governed by Democratic mayors, town councils, school boards and state representatives since the dawn of time, it’s all the fault of the only Republican in the state (besides me):

Labor leaders in Springfield suspect the Republican governor [Mitt Romney] is exploiting their city's crisis to impose radical conservative changes they say undermine workers' rights.

Yes, well, everything’s been going swimmingly up until now.