Brinksmanhip is defined in the dictionary as "the art or practice of pushing a dangerous situation or confrontation to the limit of safety especially to force a desired outcome."

That definition also fits the 2009 Mississippi state budget negotiations. With each passing day, lawmakers get closer to the June 30 deadline for adoption of a state budget for the 2010 fiscal year.

Never has it been so late in the current fiscal year that a budget for the ensuing fiscal year hasn't been adopted. Last year, lawmakers were at loggerheads over the very same Medicaid/hospital tax fight but passed a budget anyway and agreed to return to Jackson to "fix" Medicaid.

Medicaid never got "fixed" but an accounting error provided enough one-time money to ultimately tide the state over into the current fiscal year.

But even with the $40 million proceeds of the state's lawsuit against Microsoft available, the prospects of one-time money becoming available to "tide" Medicaid over in the current fiscal year are bleak. There is increasing discussion from the Capitol that budget negotiations have broken down to the point that a resolution simply may not come.

Will House and Senate budget negotiators become so mired in their political positions as to "let it break?"

Will those budget negotiators choose to let the Fiscal Year 2009 budget year end on June 30 without adopting a new budget for the FY 2010 that begins July 1? The consequences of that decision would be indeed profound.

In Washington, when budget negotiations reach such an impasse, Congress simply adopts a continuing resolution. That allows the federal government to stay in business until a compromise is reached and a budget is adopted.

Government workers get their paychecks, the trains run on time and the bills get paid. Federal programs continue uninterrupted.

But in state government, there's no such animal as a "continuing resolution."

If lawmakers "let it break" then state government will indeed grind to a halt. The Medicaid program will "sunset" for lack of reauthorization.

The state's bills won't get paid beyond whatever lag there is between when June's money and June's bills overlap.

For state employees, the concerns become more pronounced. What about paychecks, retirement benefits, health insurance premiums? All those things are state-funded and with a budget, those obligations can't be met. There is still the outlet of adopting the budget piecemeal, but that's looking less likely every day.

The bottom line is that should House and Senate negotiators fail to compromise on a state budget before the deadline, neither the House nor Senate and neither the Democrats nor the Republicans will escape their share of the political blame.

Should lawmakers craft a budget compromise and Gov. Haley Barbour rejects it, he will likewise be blamed.

In a season of economic hardship, the majority of state voters have increasingly less appetite for political brinksmanship and "gotcha" politics.

They only know that they paid state lawmakers to do a job and that the budget-making job didn't get done. At that point, voters will be looking for the next guy walking down the road waving an initiative referendum petition for term limits.

Contact syndicated columnist Sid Salter at (601) 961-7084 or e-mail salter@clarionledger.com.