The line is from Romeo and Juliet. The character Mercutio says it — three times — while he dies in a swordfight defending the honor of his friend (it’s in the middle of the play and helps set the action that sends the main characters –spoiler alert, if you’re still in junior high school — to their deaths).

It’s a pretty apt description for the state of things in the state Capitol this aft. High drama there, with the governor addressing the legislators, and so on. Read Capitol Fax for the latest–I think–it’s hard to understand. Not so hard to understand: elected officials have messed up and the folks hurting the worst are the ones with the least.

“Long-term chronic under-capacity”

Case in point: Fred Ludwig. Two weeks ago he called and we chatted briefly about how to build a story bank of individuals who would be affected by service cuts if (when, it now seems) the state’s “doomsday” budget is enacted. The agency put out a news release (PDF download) June 15 announcing 12 layoffs. Today, it was Fred’s turn.

When we checked back today, he told us he was in the middle of cleaning out his desk. Today was his last day, he’d just been laid off, after 18 months as communications staffer for the Thresholds social service agency on Chicago’s North Side.

We just had time to ask him two quick questions: what happened and what are you going to do next? (basically just the teeniest bit edited for conciseness):

• Q. What happened and whose fault is it?

  A. We [at Thresholds] would break it down to long-term chronic under-capacity. We’ve been flat funded for years and last year the state cut us $500,000. … we’ve eliminated more than 55 positions in the past year. And this is part of their structural fiscal problem, where their revenues just aren’t enough to meet their services year after year. If they just have the same amount of money it’s a loss of services because they have a chronic structural deficit they just have not addressed. … It’s a long-term problem and a short-term crisis. All of it unnecessary. It just takes leadership to address it.

• Q. What are you going to do next?
• A. Sleep for a week. I’m just really tired. Then start looking for a job. I’ve been a freelancer before.

Fred didn’t really want to be written about at all, actually–(perhaps Mercutio-like?). As he pointed out at the end of our conversation and again in an email later in the afternoon, his layoff is sad–but not tragic:

“I’m going to be fine because I have all these options,” he said. “But if they go ahead with these cuts—for people who just can’t survive without these services, that’s the tragedy, not me. Without these services, they’ll end up in jail, end up in nursing homes… it will ruin a lot of lives and cost the taxpayers a lot of money.”

And that’s the tragedy of Springfield, Illinois as of this evening, on the final day of our state fiscal year, with, apparently, no budget in sight.