Bold column, Cole. 
Kind of digressing, but one thing I wish the ADN would do is an in-depth comparison piece on how other US states and communities survive when government services are significantly reduced. A lot of people truly believe that stripping the budget of basic services won't be harmful to our economy or quality of life. So, why don't we get some snapshots of that ideology in play? I remember reading an article about this in relation to the recession in Colorado Springs.
What happens when we have no more libraries or parks? What happens when there are no street lights? Does a reduction in services really bring down a community or are those gaps somehow filled by other moveable parts? 
I want to know what this actually looks like from the front lines, through case studies and story-telling - not from the predictions of a line graph in an ISER report.