This year’s budget isn’t looking so hot.The folks at the Center for Budget & Policy, a local progressive think tank whose proposals for closing the state budget deficit I wrote about here, have just started a blog called Schmudget. They’re good at making complex and esoteric concepts understandable to the layperson, and at explaining how we got into a mess (pdf) that’s typically blamed on overspending (It wasn’t by overspending). Their blog should be a valuable resource during budget debates that will all too often be dominated by arguments like this one from Joe Zarelli, the ranking Republican on the Senate Ways and Means Committee.