Budget Despair Is Clothed in Humor

The state may be tens of billions of dollars in the red, but every person who appeared before the Senate Appropriations Committee on Monday walked away with something.

Only, it wasn’t funding for programs.

It was a T-shirt.

“I went to the Senate Appropriations Committee and all I got was this lousy T-shirt,” said the red, white and blue shirts handed out by committee Chairwoman Dede Alpert (D-Coronado) and Vice Chairman Jim Battin (R-La Quinta).

The footnote printed on the back of the shirts was more telling: “Not Printed at Taxpayers Expense -- They Can’t Afford It.”

A spokesman for Battin said the senators used campaign funds to pay for the shirts, which were meant to drive home the point that the state’s budget hole is so big this year that many proposed programs are not going to get funding.

“Sad to say, we were only half-joking,” Battin said. “Fiscally speaking, we are experiencing the worst financial times I have seen since being in the Legislature. We really can’t afford any extra expenses in this state.”