Gov. John Baldacci deserves credit for fashioning a state budget in difficult times that spreads the pain around and doesn't rely on tax increases to fix the growing gap between what Maine spends and what Maine has in the bank.

Like virtually every other state in the union, Maine is suffering from the recession. People are spending and earning less, jobs are being lost and the state's tax revenues have plummeted.

As state budget writers faced the task of putting together the two-year budget for mid-2009 through mid-2011, they had almost $850 million less than they needed to keep spending at the level of the previous two-year budget.

Which meant cutting -- of programs, of positions, of investments.

The budget Baldacci proposed last week was three inches thick. From its various tables and figures emerges a picture of cuts made in every area of state government:

* 219 state jobs will be eliminated.

* Tax rebate programs such as the Business Equipment Tax Reimbursement program will be reduced by 10 percent.

* Eligibility for some human services programs will be tightened.

* State employees who earn more than $50,000 will be required to pay a portion of their health insurance premiums.

* Fees will be increased by the departments of Marine Resources, Conservation and Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

* Some prisoners will be sent to private prisons outside the state.

* State education funding will not rise to the 55 percent level promised by lawmakers several years ago. Instead, it remains at 50 percent.

* The higher education budget will be reduced by 2.4 percent.

With his budget, Baldacci has done something extraordinary: This is the first time in more than 30 years that the state budget has decreased from one two-year budget cycle to the next. Indeed, after the cuts he proposes, the total number of state workers will stand at 13,700, the lowest state employment level since 1983.

And there's one big "if" in the budget: Baldacci has held off severe cuts to the state's human services because he's counting on almost $100 million extra coming from the feds in new health-care spending under the proposed stimulus plan. That's a big gamble and if those federal funds don't materialize, there will be a lot more pain in Maine.

While we commend Baldacci and his hardworking staff for proposing a budget that ratchets back state spending in what appears to be an equitable way, these are hardly decisions to crow about. Almost every one of them will hurt someone.

State workers will lose jobs and their families will suffer. Students whose schools won't get the money they were promised may have fewer teachers, fewer field trips, larger classes. Businesses that counted on their full tax breaks to make the bottom line might be in trouble without them. Homeowners may see property taxes raised by towns that want to make up lost state revenue.

And while many lawmakers have been running around Augusta lately saying how the state budget needs to "take care of the vulnerable" while reflecting fiscally straitened circumstances, even the state's vulnerable citizens will be hurt by this budget and our economy. There's no way around that sad fact.

Now, the bargaining starts. Lawmakers will hold hearings, lobbyists and the public will weigh in with their requests and the conversations held in the Statehouse's marble-floored hallways and high-ceilinged offices and committee rooms will help determine the welfare and fate of many in this state.

"We are in the midst of a national crisis, the likes of which have not been seen in a generation," said Baldacci upon releasing the budget. "We are all called upon to do our part to get through this difficult time."

Difficult times demand difficult decisions. This is not a moment when people will get what they want out of the state. The simple and superficially easy solution would be to raise taxes -- but in this recession, in this state whose income taxes are already too high, in this time when middle-class families are having trouble making it, new taxes must be off the table.

Instead, it's time for sacrifice. Apportioning that sacrifice in the fairest possible way is the job of the 124th Maine Legislature, and we wish its members well as they undertake this daunting task.