However, the alternative puts the fiscal ball back in the court of the Mississippi Legislature, where House and Senate factions have struggled mightily to craft budgets in recent years. Lawmakers left the Capitol after the regular session this year without a budget and were only able to reach a begrudging agreement just before the start of the new fiscal year.

Revenue collections, though, have not met budget expectations and Barbour already has made funding cuts in response. More cuts are expected to be needed as the state economy continues to lag.

Under current state law, the governor may cut up to 5 percent of agency funding. Larger reductions require the House and Senate to be called back into session.

Barbour's request to give him - as well as future governors - the ability to cut up to 10 percent could be seen by some as an attempt at a power grab. There may be some validity to that assertion.

But in making his request, the governor is also serving himself up as the target for scorn that would be sure to come from Democratic lawmakers, state agencies and others who would have to deal with the budget cuts. Another word for the governor's request would be leadership.

"Cut" is not a word that House Democrats like to use. Yet the fiscal reality facing the state is requiring them to apply that word from their vocabulary.

If lawmakers refuse to grant Barbour's request - a likely outcome based on their comments following Thursday's meeting - then it will be on them to make the hard decisions on budget cuts.

When that happens, words like "obstructionist" and 'partisanship" should not be leveled at the governor and Senate when the House refuses to go along with cuts that - while painful - are in the state's best interests. While no one really wants to do the budget dirty work, lawmakers throwing mud will serve no good when the governor offered to do the job himself.