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As last week’s state revenue estimates stirred up new worries about the state’s budget, Iowa State University economics professor Dave Swenson offered an interesting thought.

He told The Des Moines Register that the whole system is backwards. Instead of adjusting its spending to suit its income, he said, the state should look at what it needs and adjust the taxes and fees to match.

The existing framework makes for confusion when we go to the quarterly revenue estimates, which invariably miss the rapidly moving mark.

Swenson commented: “It is a stupid system and makes no sense.”

Swenson often questions the status quo, and that’s a valuable service to us all. But it’s hard to accept the idea that we should give the government even more leeway to decide what’s necessary and then send us the bill.

That would be like sending a teenager out to choose the car he or she “needs” and waiting to see what shows up in the driveway. It’s a lot safer to set the budget before hitting the dealerships.

As awkward and frustrating as the age-old system may be, it offers at least one essential advantage: It forces lawmakers to scramble now and then, and take a clearer look at how we’re spending our money in a desperate attempt to cut back.

It would be a good result if our elected officials went through the budget line by line, as leaders often promise to do, and combed out extraneous items.

Unfortunately, we can predict what will happen. The many expenditures that could easily be axed will be deemed too small and insignificant to bother with, and the focus will remain on across-the-board cuts. Ideas for new taxes and fees will be floated.

The only real way out of this box will be the return of strong tax receipts. By then, we will have slashed into big, crucial programs while once again leaving unneeded but small programs alone.