The positive financial report for the city of Auburn's first financial quarter is welcome news, for sure, but city officials and residents should not look at it as an excuse to loosen spending controls.

That's because Auburn, along with every government entity that gets money from the state each year, should expect its revenue stream from Albany to dry up soon. The state is facing a financial crisis, and it will be forced to make major spending cuts.

To not prepare for such a scenario is irresponsible.

We're a little concerned about the statements related to the future from the city comptroller, in her presentation of the current budget situation. She said there have been no indications that any state or federal aid will be cut this year. That must mean that the city has not been given a specific warning from a specific person that this will happen, but it would be foolish not to plan for a not-too-distant future with substantially less trickling down to the city level.

The same goes for local school districts, as well as county, town and village governments.

You can bet private sector employers are making these kinds of decisions. Government needs to follow suit.

This is the time to make decisions to cut out unneeded travel - do town, city and school leaders truly need to spend money on association junkets this year? This is the time to look at health-care costs - do part-time elected officials need comprehensive coverage? This is the time, unfortunately, to look at staff levels - are governments employing full-time people for part-time work in some cases?

No matter where all of these entities are in their budget process, they should be working now on establishing cost-cutting plans.

Now is the time to have these discussions, not after the outside funding is gone and the only place to turn to fill the gap is the taxpayers.