According to a recent report put out by the State Budget Crisis Task Force, states are facing steep budgetary gaps over the next five to ten years. An article in the Wall Street Journal presents some of the key findings of the report which include financial deficits in regards to Medicaid spending and retirement promises. Ignoring these budgetary issues certainly won’t make them go away. As Mr. Ravitch, co-chair of the report, said at a recent news conference:

“Our goal was not to say that the apocalypse is around the corner…. But it will be … a lot more expensive to deal with these problems in five or ten years than to deal with them now.”