Mike shows his partisanship more than usual here.
You state that the electorate doesn't grasp the extent of the financial straits our state is facing.  I would argue that the public DOES grasp this huge problem, but the Legislative majorities have insisted on burying their collective heads in the sand; for fear of financially irritating the resource coalition industries who pay their way into office.   Many studies - even the politically skewed one done by the Senate Majority earlier in the session - show that the public is strongly behind a broad based legislative solution to our fiscal dilemma, an opinion which was promptly ignored by the Legislature.
What the people want is to not have to bear the entirety of the fiscal burden we face.  Increased revenue from Big Oil, increased corporate income tax, an income tax, and all other revenue generating measures should be implemented - along with sensible use of PF resources.  SHARING our fiscal problem is what we want and need!