The result of the state's budget process this year is simply astounding.

In the midst of a recession, our state leaders have come up with a spending plan that defies logic in so many ways.

The $131.8 billion budget increases spending nearly 9 percent, features about $7 billion in new taxes and fees and hikes state debt 9 percent.

State debt will total about $54 billion after this budget, which is about $2,800 for every man, woman and child in the state.

It is unfathomable how our state leaders can justify such a budget in times like these.

The result of this package figures to be especially damaging to North Country residents and small businesses.

A 2-percent increase in utility taxes will hurt everybody, not to mention large users in our region, such as Georgia-Pacific in Plattsburgh and Macadam Cheese Factory in Chateaugay.

Mom and pop grocery stores will feel the hit in the form of an increase for licenses to sell tobacco products from the current $100 per year to anywhere from $1,000 to $5,000 per year, depending on sales. The logic behind this move is that if fewer stores opt not to sell cigarettes, fewer people will smoke.

Fat chance. All this fee does is hurt small businesses who benefit from those who purchase other items when they go in for a pack of smokes.

The budget closes Camp Gabriels minimum-security prison, which costs this area jobs and inmate work crews.

The so-called "sick tax" will also hurt hospitals. CVPH in Plattsburgh could see a loss of about $800,000 in this budget.

With reform to the Rockefeller Drug Laws, the need for more Probation Department services figures to rise, yet funding for that department has been cut about 6 percent.

Nursing homes, municipalities and a host of others have also been hit hard by the budget.

On the plus side, funding for community colleges was restored, and a proposed cap on taxes the state has to pay for state-owned lands was removed.

The idea of allowing grocery stores to sell wine was also nixed, to the relief of owners of small liquor stores.

While this budget may make many scratch their heads, the process of its creation is even more frustrating.

The State Legislature passed budget reform laws in 2007 in order to fix the "three men in a room" process.

None of those laws was followed, according to North Country Assemblywoman Janet Duprey (R-Peru), who said longtime colleagues called in "the worst they've ever seen."

In fact, with the three leaders — Gov. David Paterson, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Malcolm A. Smith — all being Democrats from New York City, the rest of the state had no say.

It is disheartening to know that in times of crisis our state leaders not only fail to change course, they compound our problems by cementing age-old practices that have put our state in serious debt over the years.