It’s hard to assess state government finances this fall as anything but grim. But sometimes tough circumstances can produce useful results.

Not that there’s anything positive about cutting agency budgets, which Gov. Haley Barbour has done once and this week said he anticipates doing again before the Legislature convenes in January. Yet if state government managers take seriously Barbour’s request to identify their most essential services and priorities, it could be a helpful exercise.

Much of that has already been going on as cuts have come and more loomed. Obviously, anyone facing significant budget reductions must decide where the ax should fall. But a more intentional process of formally identifying the essential functions of an agency can bring some additional clarity.

Most businesses during this severe recession have had to ask themselves the same questions: What is it we do that is essential to our customers? What is important but less vital to the core mission? What is simply nice to have but expendable?

Of course businesses tend to have more flexibility than government agencies, whose functions are often mandated by law. “Running government like a business” can sometimes be a misnomer, given the differences and the fact that government is not set up to turn a profit.

Nevertheless, the good business practices that can logically be applied to government need to be, especially in times like these.

Here’s a capsule of these times:

n State revenues through the first three months of the 2010 fiscal year are $83 million, or 7.7 percent, below the projections on which the budget was based.

n Gov. Barbour earlier cut $172 million from the 2010 budget, about $158 million of it in education at all levels.

n The governor’s future cutting options are restricted, since all budgets must be cut 5 percent before any can be cut more than that, and when cuts above the 5 percent threshold come they have to be equally applied.

We have said before that education, having already taken a 5 percent hit before other state government functions, should be spared from cuts in the next round, as Barbour earlier had suggested would be the case. There’s too much catching up to be done in Mississippi schools, community colleges and universities for them to undergo more cuts, especially given the availability of state reserves to help cushion the blow.

But the prospect of future looming cuts and longer-term revenue issues requires even more focus on efficiencies at every level of education.

A new focus on the essentials and the core mission of all state governmental entities, including education, may be the only way to wrest a little good from all the bad.