Last week Gov. Sean Parnell cut the Legislature's $3.1 billion capital budget by about 10 percent.

He spread the disappointment around the state, and his standard reason for either zeroing out or trimming money for projects was simple -- "reduce spending."

He left a capital budget that combines state and federal funds at about $2.8 billion. That goes about 90 percent of the way toward what the Legislature argued was right and timely for Alaska to spend on roads, public buildings, schools, bridges and sewers to both renew the state's infrastructure and provide thousands of Alaska jobs.

No question the capital budget that remains will give us an economic boost. Still standing is a Christmas tree of a spending package, less $300 million in decorations. Anchorage, for example, took a $70 million hit from the Legislature's version but still scores almost $500 million in projects. From engineers to laborers to IT specialists, that should keep a lot of people working.

He could have cut more, but $300 million does make a point of restraint. Lawmakers like Sens. Bert Stedman and Hollis French have argued that this is the right time to make these expenditures because the state has more than $10 billion in budget reserves, money wisely put by after the big spike in oil prices in 2008. We're in good shape with savings and can afford to spend.

Can we afford this big a capital budget? Right now, sure. But the question that a minority of lawmakers and the governor himself raised is what about tomorrow? What about operations and maintenance for new infrastructure? How long will we have those billions in reserve with a continuing decline in oil production and the volatility of oil prices? And the gas line? That's not a sure thing.

You don't have to have too long an Alaska memory to recall days when oil prices tanked, we were burning through the Constitutional Budget Reserve and arguing about deep cuts, an income tax, sales tax or use of Permanent Fund earnings to help cover state expenses. What looks affordable today may not look that way tomorrow.

We can argue about the relative merits of specific capital cuts -- and if the knife could have gone deeper. But overall the governor did well.