Sen. Kane: “Connecticut’s cash problems boil down to one word: spending.”

Say you are financing a car over four years.

And say your car payments are backloaded, so that you pay larger and larger amounts with each passing year.

You know you can swing the first year’s payments, but in those future years you are going to need, well, a lot of luck.

That analogy sums up the State of Connecticut’s budget dilemma.

We have a state budget that is balanced — on paper, for one year.

For the books to remain balanced, the economy will have to improve faster than Gov. Dannel Malloy’s already rosy projections. If that doesn’t happen, the deficits will grow and grow.

What does it mean for you?

There are limited options to eliminate those future deficits. Raise taxes, borrow money or cut spending. Which option do you think Gov. Malloy will choose, taxpayers? Last month, the governor described the deficit as “basically a revenue problem,” that could be solved by an upswing in the state’s economic fortunes.

“I wish the economy was growing a little bit more rapidly,” he said.

Our leaders can wish all they want. They can cross their fingers and hope for an economic boom. But like the person whose car payments are steadily rising, so are the state’s financial obligations.

What obligations?

Well, there’s the four year no-layoff pledge Gov. Malloy and the Democrat majorities made to state employees last year. Because of that pledge, state government cannot downsize. Our hands have been tied. We have no flexibility. Personnel costs have been labeled untouchable.

And there’s the rising debt we owe on the state’s heavily loaded credit card, pension and retiree health care programs. This debt, combined with the state’s depleted emergency reserve, led one of the leading Wall Street credit rating agencies to downgrade Connecticut in January.

The bills must be paid, and they are growing. One year after enacting the largest tax increase in Connecticut history, state tax receipts are lower than expected.

Meanwhile, Connecticut’s cash pool is being depleted and has dipped to an unprecedented, dangerous level. In fact, this past week, we learned that the state has raided its own retirement fund to pay its bills.

This is where we find ourselves with just a few days remaining in the 2012 fiscal year. Your state government leadership is unable to cut spending and continues to spend more than it takes in.

Let’s see if the “car payments” will be made on time.