Imagine you are a steelworker making $50,000 a year and your spouse makes a similar amount working at the refinery.

No kids. Fat city, right? You take nice vacations, drive nice cars, eat in nice restaurants and still manage to sock some away for the future.

Now imagine you with three kids, all in parochial school. The spouse stays home to raise the kids, effectively slashing your income by half as you watch your expenditures rise.

What happens to you? Instead of vacationing in Maui, you go to the Dells. You drive your car until the wheels fall off. You make it to a nice restaurant on your anniversary. In other words, your priorities have shifted and you (here's the key word) budget.

On Tuesday, the long-awaited Maximus study of Lake County government came out with its recommendations, which sound a lot like the "B" word.

Expect much howling and whimpering from the government center during the next few days from those pols who will lose employees and more importantly their votes, their families' votes and their campaign cash.

But unless the County Council and commissioners put the Good Government study into action, the document will be nothing but a heavyweight doorstop. No representative from either body was there Tuesday morning when the study was released.

The study was commissioned by a number of local industries and paid for with private money, although its godfather is U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky.

Will the study ever be implemented?

I see that only if the "circuit-breaker" law takes effect, which will cap property taxes and cost Lake County government some $36 million annually.

That way, the pols can slash away and blame someone else when people start to squawk. "It wasn't us," they will say. "You want to complain? Call Maximus, or better yet call Visclosky."

Clerk Tom Philpot is surely not going to be pleased -- he asked the county for 10 additional positions last year (he didn't get them) and now he stands to lose 26 instead. Things are not looking good for the county-owned car he has coveted so long.

The study has turned thumbs down on county cars going home with just about everyone, including the patrol division of the Sheriff's Department, which owns 218 squad cars. Although Sheriff Roy Dominguez has used the cars in lieu of better raises, the study essentially says if you want cops to make more, pay them more and take the cars back.

I can't say I'm surprised at a study commissioned by private industry that recommends living within a budget.

After all, it's tough living in the real world. People expect results.

The opinions are solely those of the writer. He can be reached at markk@nwitimes.com or (219) 933-4170.