“Step in my shoes for a week. Please, I invite you.”

A struggling owner of  a Massachusetts small business is furious with Gov. Deval Patrick about his call for a tax hike. She offered a challenge to the Democratic governor.

Her message to the governor: “Step in my shoes for a week. Please, I invite you. Try to pay off a $900 heat bill with these rates. Try to fill your tank with gas. Go to the store with $20 and buy dinner.”

She and her husband, Rob, opened their Weymouth autobody shop, FCR Inc., 32 years ago. Everyone in the family, including their son and daughter, earns their livelihood working for the business.

“They need to start to learn how to cut a little bit. Pinch pennies — like we do,” she said about lawmakers.

Indeed. Thankfully, here in North Carolina, we now have a legislature and a governor that are committed to reining in the scope and cost of government so that public money is effectively used for appropriate and necessary public services. That is a far cry from where we are today.