Everyone who pays attention to city government knows the budget is in trouble again. The problem is that spending is increasing faster than revenue.

For four years in a row city department heads have been instructed to trim their budgets. Services provided to Lincoln residents have eroded in what City Councilman Doug Emery calls "the death of a thousand cuts."

Just one example: First a few swimming pools' hours are shortened, then all pools are closed for the evening, then some pools are closed forever.

Former City Councilman Curt Donaldson warned in May 2007 of impending cuts in city employees because elected officials would not increase the property tax rate. Since then 115 city positions have been eliminated. Even the Police Department has lost 3.5 jobs.

Much attention has been paid, curiously, to the mowing of city parks. Maybe that's because the Parks and Recreation Department has been the hardest hit, 61 jobs cut since 2006, and Citizens for Quality Parks and Trails was organized in opposition.

But other equally valuable programs have been lost or restricted as well. Public Works and Utilities has shrunk 20 positions. The various programs under the Mayor's Office have been slashed by 15.4 positions.

City public libraries have lost 12.7 employees and library hours have been shortened. Now the city is considering closing three neighborhood libraries.

The Health Department has lost 9.5 jobs, Building and Safety five and so on. Don't be surprised if the next time you visit Pioneers Park Nature Center you're charged admission of $3 or $4. Next City Hall may start charging us to call the police or fire department.

This recently popular notion that everything should be fee-based is crazy.

That's the way it works in the Third World and it's a horrible system. The rich live behind walls with their bodyguards and the poor fend for themselves in slums without police or sewers. The middle class is very small. Millions want to emigrate.

Promotion of the common good is a sound principle of American government (read the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution) and has resulted in a large middle class and an envied lifestyle. Our country turns away immigrants.

One aspect of city finances no one is talking about is debt. Rather than raise taxes, elected officials have turned repeatedly to borrowing. In Lincoln, net public debt per capita has increased from $1,994 in 1998 to $3,806 in 2008, a jump of 91 percent.

Perhaps city bond issues, sold to investors for their tax-exempt status and repaid with inflated tax dollars, would be good practice in times of predictable prosperity.

But at least since last September, when former President George Bush announced to the world that the U.S. Treasury was now being devoted to the rescue of Wall Street and the country's biggest banks, forecasts for the future have been clouded.

As the recession spread from centers of feverishly booming real estate to the remnants of the manufacturing industry to retail and consumer sectors, economists found it increasingly difficult to predict an early end to the slump.

Many state governments are now in fiscal crisis. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reports 42 states face fiscal 2009 deficits totaling $52 billion. Already, 44 states are forecasting 2010 deficits of $105 billion.

Nebraska's constitutional ban on unbalanced budgets suddenly looks smart rather than old-fashioned. Our state senators were debating how to spend a $566 million surplus while California, oh so rich and trendy California, grappled with a $42 billion budget deficit.

Lincoln's city debt of almost $1 billion is not unusually large for a city with annual personal income probably exceeding $10 billion, but it is evidence of lack of political will. Whenever a government, whether national, state or municipal, fails to keep its accounts current and begins to borrow regularly against future revenue, it is asking for trouble.

The stock market's recent loss of 40 percent of its value was not as spectacular as the 1929 Crash, but it rang the same warning bells. This is a time for fiscal caution. It is wrong to expect our generation's bills to be paid by our children and grandchildren.

"Pay as you go" is a fundamental Nebraska value. Nebraskans built the modern Capitol Building without debt by paying a $1.5 million property surtax. Finished during the Great Depression, it was the only state capitol paid for on completion.

Lincoln city officials must heed their heritage. In politics, as in life, doing the right thing takes courage.

For Lincoln to be competitive in attracting new residents, businesses and industries, the city dare not backslide.

Lincoln must build upon its hard-earned reputation as a well-managed and well-maintained high-quality city.

Rick Noyes lives in Lincoln.