Gov. Mike Easley is asking a lot of the Honorables this year: He wants them to raise taxes on alcoholic beverages and cigarettes at a time when North Carolinians are watching gasoline creep ever closer to $4 a gallon.

Harsh, perhaps, if you smoke or drink more than occasionally. But many of the alternatives - making deep cuts in other programs, raising other taxes or ignoring needs altogether under the guise of "fiscal responsibility" – are less palatable.

Easley would put the extra money into fixing the badly broken mental health system and to bring teacher pay up to the national average of about $50,000.

Based on initial reaction, the General Assembly seems unlikely to accommodate him. Predictably, the Republican caucus has attached its tired "tax-and-spend" label to the governor's budget. And Democrats facing an election battle in November don't want to be accused by their opponents of supporting "unrestrained spending."

Politically, Easley can afford to be a little bolder. He can't run for re-election.

The governor proposes spending $68 million more on mental health. Much of that would go to hire about 500 new employees at state psychiatric hospitals and local mental health agencies. The money would come from a relatively painless (for most people) tax increase on beer, wine and liquor - about 25 cents per six-pack, 3 cents per bottle of wine and 4 percent on the hard stuff. Given that substance abuse often plays a role in mental illness, this is a logical funding solution.

More controversial is Easley's plan to add 20 cents per pack to the cigarette tax – a move that would fall hardest on heavy smokers with low incomes. Smokers would pay 55 cents per pack to support pay raises for teachers; North Carolina's tax would still be lower than 39 other states.

Cutting "waste," as Republicans continually chant, only goes so far. Certainly, there are always ways to tighten up, to defer some big-ticket items and to scrutinize legislators' pet projects more closely. But legitimate needs will not go away.

The lame-duck governor has issued a challenge, and legislators' response will send a message about their priorities. Will politicians merely pay lip service to the need for a mental health system that actually works, and the need to pay teachers what they're worth? Or will they ignore those and other pressing needs?

This year, no need is more pressing than mental health. There's no way the lawmakers legitimately can ignore that. They and Easley share the blame for the failed "reform" that wasted taxpayers' money while hurting many of the people it was supposed to help.

It's their job to fix it. To do that, they must find the money to put in place real reforms, and then follow through to make sure they work.

If the Honorables don't like the governor's plan, it's up to them to come up with a new one – or to take full responsibility for leaving the system a broken mess.

—Star-News, Wilmington