How is it that elected and appointed officials brag that the state operating budget has been cut yet year over year spending continues to increase?  The answer is that people can be untruthful about budget cuts but the cash that has to go out to pay for expenses is a hard number.  The budget has yet to be reduced, and it won't be reduced until health care and education have year to year reductions.  Right now the same legislators who brag about cutting the budget just approved a $55 million new health care program that those legislators forget to include in their bragging.  They also forget the $70 million in automatic salary increases.  They want to tax us without ever cutting the budget, and the administration admits that the income tax would soon have to triple or quadruple after adoption (requiring up to 600 new hires in Juneau).