The nearly 9 percent gain in state tax collections for 2011, reported yesterday by the U.S. Census Bureau, is being greeted as evidence that the economy and the fiscal shape of states are both improving substantially. But some context is needed. As the chart below shows, despite the gain, state tax revenues remain below their  peak in 2008. That alone is sobering because costs have continued to rise, creating a mismatch between revenues and expenditures that has lasted so long it essentially has created a new...