Maybe it didn’t seem like much harm could come from plugging holes in the state budget by draining reserve funds and delaying payments, but a news item today suggests otherwise. One of three Wall Street bond houses has downgraded Minnesota’s bond rating.

The state was one of only a handful nationwide to have the top bond rating with all three houses; now, there’s a blemish on Minnesota’s credit record for the first time since 1997. That means it will cost more to borrow money. That’s the price a state pays for fiscal irresponsibility.

Two years ago, the legislature proved it cared more about reelection than sound policy, using every trick in the book to put off solving a state budget crisis that everybody knew was only going to get worse. Instead of following the more responsible recommendations of then-Gov. Jesse Ventura, they raided the state’s piggy bank and used accounting shifts to cover the budget, avoiding any hard decisions until after the 2002 election.

Perhaps if Minnesota still had its reserves and had solved its budget crisis without resorting to accounting gimmicks, it would not have lost its prized bond rating.

It may have worked in the short-term, but the drop in the bond rating shows the state will pay in the long run.