If you’re reading this then you’ve figured out that the state didn’t shut us down.

Actually, we are independently owned and completely unaffiliated with the state government (except for paying taxes), thankfully, or you would probably be reading this week’s issue scribbled in crayon on very inexpensive notebook paper.

The state had been facing a partial government shutdown if our legislators in Lansing did not reach an agreement on the state budget, which included a projected $1.75-billion deficit.

Midnight Sunday was the deadline, with many government offices and state parks closing, 90 percent of state police told not to report to work, road construction projects on hold and about 35,000 of the state’s 53,000 workers barred from going to work if the shutdown continued.

The cowards in Lansing finally stepped up, did their jobs and passed a balanced budget early Monday morning, leaving the state in partial government shutdown mode for a little more than four hours and, hopefully, preventing Michigan from becoming even more of a national laughingstock.

The deal includes an income tax increase from 3.9 percent to 4.35 percent; expanding the six percent sales tax to some services (a list is available on the state Dept. of Treasury website) effective Dec. 1; and $440 million in spending cuts, which everyone except the obstinate partisan hacks seemed to know was the only realistic way to solve the deficit.

What is questionable is why our legislators — who had a proposed balanced budget and knew the methods for achieving it nine months ago — waited until past the deadline to come to an agreement. Maybe they were distracted by all the trips to Mackinac.

Whatever your political persuasion, don’t accept their excuse of fundamental political ideology as a rationale for the delay, either. This crisis was about ego, self-preservation and misplaced loyalty in Lansing; inaction and apathy throughout the rest of the state.

Several elected officials have grudgingly admitted they feared they might not be re-elected if they broke with party ranks. Any elected official who is more concerned about keeping their job and toeing the party line instead of doing what’s in the best interest of everyone in the state deserves to be impeached.

The public, either because we just didn’t care or failed to make our wishes known, also is to blame for not demanding that our leaders put aside the posturing and rhetoric and find a workable solution sooner.

While we should all be relieved the state government reached a deal, there is plenty to question. The agreement doesn’t include any inflationary funding increases for public universities and community colleges. Michigan has a problem of losing its young, educated professionals, who must move to other states to seek gainful employment. We won’t have to worry about that anymore: our students won’t be able to afford college and will not have the education needed to qualify for out-of-state jobs.

Legislators say they can now focus on finding ways to attract businesses to Michigan, but without plans in place — and the incentives to bring businesses to the state — we’re still going to hemorrhage our professionals to other areas with more promise. By the way, Michigan had the highest unemployment rate in the nation in August — 7.4 percent.

The income tax increase — really just a raise back to levels from 1994, when some might argue this whole mess was set in motion — isn’t a permanent solution, either. The deal includes provisions to roll back the increase to 3.9 percent between 2011-15, so we’re likely to face this dilemma again.

Maybe the legislators should have led by example and rescinded the $20,000-plus a year raises and benefit packages they gave themselves a few years ago. It wouldn’t have solved the budget crisis but it would have shown people that our leaders were willing to make sacrifices for us.

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