A loan for lean times. It looks like at least some state officials are finally coming to their senses. The Boston Globe's Rick Klein reports that legislators are thinking about borrowing money in order to get through a temporary fiscal crisis rather than to continue to inflict pain on those who depend on government services.

There's a lot of blather right now about the legislature's refusal to go along with Governor Mitt Romney's reforms. No doubt some of the reforms that Romney has proposed are worthy. So are the ones being pushed by a few reformist Democrats (getting rid of the Governor's Council and the Quinn bill for starters), described in a column today by the Globe's Scot Lehigh.

No one, though, thinks these reforms will add up to more than a pittance. Yes, the ones that make sense should be enacted. But real human needs should not be held hostage to them, either.