This is going to be tough. First of all, let me welcome you back to the new year. This summer was warm, bright and absolutely too hot.Nonetheless, I hope you had a chance to relax, catch up with friends and family members you never talk to — you know the ones I mean. The ones you say “oh let’s totally hang out soon!” to on Facebook, then dodge for another six months. And maybe you even caught up on a little news in there somewhere.But regardless of your social productivity in the past few months, it’s time for business.So we’ve all heard quite a bit about the “budget situation.” E-mail after e-mail, professors endlessly ranting, guest speakers campaigning for their proposed “solutions.”I wouldn’t be surprised at all if half of the University’s students have set up a ï¬lter for all e-mail with anything that even looks like it has “budget update” in the subject. It’s easy to let it all just move into a blur — to forget about it and let someone else deal with it.Unfortunately, that just won’t work.So here’s what you need to know — this is the real bottom line: Louisiana, like everything else except our government, apparently, has a budget. Most of Louisiana’s budget is non-discretionary, so it can’t be adjusted or cut for better or worse. This leaves us with discretionary spending which, as it turns out, is primarily education and health care. You know, just the stuff we don’t really need. The cuts work out to somewhere around a 35 percent of our funding, around $74 million, and that’s just as bad as it sounds. We’re in this spot because of some very unusual — and very unsustainable — circumstances for Louisiana.The post-Katrina rebuilding boom and higher oil prices drove tax income to levels that made us look like we weren’t terrible with money. But in 2006 the powers that be decided to cut the heavy taxes weighing on us poor citizens, effectively ending $988 million dollars in recurring ï¬sherman’s paradise-quality revenue.Because the income wasn’t sustainable, which you’d think would have been considered before Louisiana cut off its big toe, we’re now scrambling around the house looking for spare change in the couch cushions — and we’re just not ï¬nding the cash. Not even close.There are several funds with emergency cash for such an occasion. Louisiana has to make less money for its next ï¬scal year, and as Murphy’s Law would predict, we’re going to make just enough so we can’t access those options. If we had made less money, we could access “rainy day” funds and fare much better.It’s also possible to raise taxes on say cigarettes (yes, again) or raise taxes in some other form. That option has been discussed, though our legislature has rigidly opposed raising taxes, and Gov. Bobby Jindal has already made it clear he doesn’t want to take more of our money.Anyway, what’s the point? Why should you care?These changes are really going to happen. The University will absolutely undergo massive changes that will affect us for years to come. We’re shutting down some of the nation’s best research, ï¬ring essential professors and lowering the value of our degree in an already competitive market.There’s no one person to blame, and we can’t be sure what our beloved campus will look like once the dust settles.But my friends, it’s with a sincerely heavy and grieved heart that I must confess that I can ï¬nd no solution. There is no “write a letter to so-and-so” or “protest here” this time. We really have put ourselves in a situation where there’s just no way out — screwed the proverbial pooch, as one might say.Welcome back.Devin Graham is a 21-year-old business management senior from Prairieville. Follow him on Twitter at TDR_dgraham.-Contact Devin Graham at [email protected]