Rising to the challenge

For close to a century, 91 years to be exact, the employees at Malden's Ferguson Industries For the Blind have churned out mops, pillowcases, and other goods, working as state employees.

Even as their ranks have dwindled over the past two decades, the program had survived every budget and every down economic cycle. That changed yesterday, when its 25 blind employees and their six supervisors were told that they are victims of the new round of state budget cuts.

"This was one of the really difficult decisions we had to make," said Jose Martinez, a spokesman for the Executive Office of Health and Human Services. "There's been less demand for the products they make."

The hard decisions have only begun, as the state begins to cope with a deficit of $1.4 billion that is expected to grow. And that means that the administration of Governor Deval Patrick has entered a very interesting and challenging phase.

Patrick was elected in good times, after running a campaign in which he seemed to promise something for everyone. But circumstances have changed dramatically, and the question of how to pay for new programs has given way to what to cut, and how deeply.

Patrick's initial response has been bold and refreshingly transparent. It is a far cry from the governor of a year ago who offered us casino madness in lieu of hard decisions Patrick is drawing on now.

It isn't that cutting is a virtue in itself; there is no joy in seeing programs slashed and services suffer. But every serious leader faces a moment that offers no easy answers, and this is such a moment. Platitudes and bromides simply will not work. The notion that one campaigns in poetry but governs in prose is on vivid display this week.

No one knows how bad the crisis will get, driven as it is by circumstances beyond the state's control. In hindsight, the state's revenue projections for this fiscal year were overly optimistic. They have been adjusted, but might still be well off the mark, partly because the real estate slump that shows no signs of abating is hammering capital gains taxes. "These crises are never solved in one intervention," noted Michael Widmer of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation.

Widmer predicted that more pain is inevitable, including cuts in local aid, which has been spared for now. "Everyone's going to have to share the pain," Widmer said. "If it isn't cut this year, it's almost inevitable in [fiscal] 2010. It's not fair to spare cities and town when we're cutting human services and closing nursing homes."

Then there is the matter of Question 1, the ballot initiative that would eliminate the state income tax. Leslie Kirwan, secretary of Administration and Finance, said its passage would make the crisis unmanageable. "There is pain around these cuts, and you will continue to hear that, as the impact is felt," she said. "But Question 1 is so much bigger that government would really be dismantled."

Kirwan noted that ordering deep budget cuts is more difficult for a governor who unapologetically believes in big government. "It's difficult for him, with all the aspirations he has for what government can do for the Commonwealth," she said. "But even with the value system he has, which includes a lot of respect for services and employees, he has made cuts with a lot of integrity."

Of course, governors get paid to make hard decisions. But compare what we have seen this week to the governor who pitched the idea of building a few casinos, did little to sell it, and didn't even hang around to watch the Legislature vote it down. Over the past year, by degrees, Patrick has made the transition from a candidate to a governor.

That transformation happened just in time. Anyone can make promises when times are flush. Times of crisis are when you find out whom you really voted for.

Adrian Walker is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at walker@globe.com