As the Dow plunged and Gov. Deval Patrick announced $1 billion in cuts to the state budget, I took some solace in the fact that I could always return to my home state of Rhode Island. Even if the MBTA stopped running when the Bay State went completely into the red, it would only take a couple of days of walking to get back to Providence. Maybe I’d even make it in time for WaterFire!

Apparently, I didn’t get the notice that Rhode Island is having the “year from hell.” There goes my plan B.

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The one thing that can be said for House Speaker Sal DiMasi is that he isn’t wishy-washy. He practically cackled with glee as he dismantled Gov. Deval Patrick’s casino legislation last year, but he’s also able to keep a relatively low profile when the situation calls for it. Like, when a lot of his friends and associates are being investigated for not reporting hundreds of thousands in lobbying income.

But today the Speaker is reportedly exhibiting some uncharacteristic coyness in regard to whether or not the Legislature will convene before the next formal session in January to consider the parts of Patrick’s budget proposal that requires its approval.

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We don’t like to get too sentimental around here, since it clashes with our hard-hearted cynicism. But we saw something in the paper today that sent us back to a simpler time, before deep cuts to the state budget dominated the headlines.

Yes, we’re talking about that idyllic time in which our biggest concern was the contract negotiations between city officials and the Local 718, the union which represents Boston’s firefighters.

What inspired this walk down memory lane? A report from Fire Commissioner Roderick Fraser that says that the department is actually doing pretty well in implementing the recommendations of a mayoral review panel.

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Now that Gov. Deval Patrick’s cuts to state services are threating the well-being of little old ladies of Fitchburg, certainly taxpayers have sacrificed enough to keep things rolling until the economy improves. Right? Right?

[I]f the stock market continues its downward slide, the state could face an additional deficit of more than $400 million to $500 million in capital gains and income tax losses, state officials and specialists said.

Well, there goes our post-Sox victory glow.

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How’s everybody doing this Thursday afternoon? Are you feeling good?

Yeah, neither are we. The stock market is still all over the place, our local media brethren are losing their jobs, and even Playboy is laying people off.

If that’s not bleak enough, Mayor Tom Menino has announced a city-wide hiring freeze.

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Well, we can’t say Gov. Deval Patrick didn’t warn us. The budget cuts he announced yesterday evening certainly do cut through the fat and muscle. We imagine that many state agencies woke up this morning feeling dismembered like the Black Knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. (”You’ve got no arms left!”)

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Gov. Deval Patrick is wrapping up his formal announcement of the muscle-cutting measures the state will need to make to deal with an estimated $1.4 billion shortfall. Details are still coming in, but here’s what we know.

• 1,000 state jobs will be affected.
• Patrick has ordered agencies to trim $755 million from their budgets, and constitutional offices have voluntarily agreed to cut $52 million.
• State agencies that come looking for mid-fiscal year infusions of cash? Not gonna happen in FY2009.
• The governor wants the Legislature to take $200 million from the rainy day fund.

All of the measures Patrick outlined will still leave the state $400 million short of the $1.4 budget gap. But if anyone doubted the state’s finances are in serious trouble, these moves will certainly convince them.

Wow.

Those layoffs and budget cuts Gov. Deval Patrick is going to officially announce this evening? Boston.com reports 1,000 state jobs will go unfilled or be cut, and a whopping $700 million will need to be trimmed from the budget to make ends meet.

Forget trimming the fat and the muscle—cuts like that are brutal enough to break bones.

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A year ago, House Speaker Sal DiMasi was humiliating Gov. Deval Patrick like he was the Rays are Patrick was the Sox. We were fully prepared to watch the legislature run roughshod over Patrick until 2010, or he was nominated to a position in a Barack Obama administration, whichever came first.

But now? The governor must be eating his Wheaties, because he is the strongest guy on Beacon Hill. In his latest power play, Patrick has kept his plans to cut services and staff quiet.

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The day of reckoning is almost upon us. Gov. Deval Patrick is preparing state workers and nervous taxpayers for the worst, announcing that’s he’ll detail “hundreds of millions” in cuts to the state’s budget tomorrow.

“People will feel this in their services,” Patrick said after addressing an exposition of Massachusetts employers at the Statehouse.

Let’s imagine what this underfunded new world will look like.

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