State budget troubles

I don't think there is any state in the US with a budget surplus or even a reasonable plan for covering current costs. How did this happen? How can one administration after another pass on a growing debt and deficit to the next? We all watched this happen on the federal level, but states and towns have done the same thing. Here is one reason: http://www.rep-am.com/news/local/483428.txt unfunded pension plans. Compensation packages for state workers were designed at a time when most people lived into their 60's and maybe early 70's. Not so any more. The majority of people are living well into their 80's and even 90's. The private sector has been abandoning defined benefit pension plans in recent years for this very reason. Longer lifespans have rendered defined benefits unaffordable. The car industry demonstrates how unreasonably generous retirement packages can jeopardize the entire operation. If GMC goes bye-bye, so do the jobs and the retirement benefits. What will we do when our governments run out of money?