The Nation: Help Wanted

New Hampshire seeks temporary services of a political scientist (Nobel Peace Prize minimum requirement), fiscal troubleshooter (Is New York City too easy for you?) or expert magician (Have you ever levitated Mount Rush-more?) to untie a Gordian knot. The problem: it has no budget. Since midnight June 30, the state has had no legal authority to spend a dime; there is no payroll; the government is now all volunteer.

Faced with a potential $25 million deficit, conservative Governor Meldrim Thomson Jr. and the two houses of the legislature all seek to balance the budget. They cannot get together on how to do it. Thomson, who was re-elected last year on a no-new-taxes promise, has repeatedly refused to consider any significant tax increase. The house at first agreed and approved a budget with across-the-board spending cuts, no new taxes needed. The senate killed it. Then the house passed a budget that would avoid the cuts by raising new taxes, one of them a lO¢-per-gal. soft-drink tax. The senate scuttled that one too. No matter. Thomson announced that he would veto any budget with a soda-pop tax. Furious representatives, saying their work had been done, recessed the house. Thomson called an emergency session for this week.

Anybody who wants to take a crack at the Granite State's problem should just send in a resume. No salary history required.