I expressed my personal support for the $8.3 million Livonia school capital project referendum scheduled to come before voters Wednesday Dec. 16.

Today, I find my resolve shaken by the impassioned outcries of local citizens who attended an informational session on the vote Monday night.

Our paper is published Thursday, but begins its distribution Wednesday morning. There is a chance that this editorial won’t find its way its way into your hands until after the vote has been tallied Wednesday night.

That’s okay, because Livonia may have the spotlight for the moment, but what I have to say applies to all tax-collecting entities in the county.

The Livonia school board did what all district do when planning big capital projects. They looked at the needs of the district, then identified a window when the budgeted debt payments would be at a lull and the district could take care of repairs without having to raise taxes.

It’s similar to a homeowner whose $300 a month car payment comes to an end — but she decides to postpone a replacement and spend that $300 a month on a new furnace before shopping for a new car.

But what happens if that homeowner signs for a loan, then loses her income? In more prosperous times, banks feel confident making that loan because neither the bank nor the homeowner would have any reason to believe she wouldn’t be able to make the payments.

One of the reason bank credit has slowed down over the past year is a loss of confidence in the private sector. Consumers with good jobs, once a sure bet for a bank loan, have become more risky prospects.

In the case of Livonia schools — and indeed Geneseo schools, the town of Avon with its Opera Block project, the town and village of Geneseo with its government building rehab — the taxpayer is the banker.

Can we trust that state funding and grants will come through at the levels that schools and municipalities promise during a bond vote? Can we trust those boards to hold back on authorized projects if the money doesn’t materialize.

It doesn’t help that New York Governor David Paterson announced this week that he’s holding onto $750 million earmarked for local governments and agencies. He needs the money because the state’s coffers are nearly depleted.

But does he have any choice? Unlike the federal government, which can borrow hundreds of billions of dollars from the Chinese and pump it into our economy, New York has to finish the year in the black.

What’s at stake here is bigger than a roof in Livonia or an auditorium at the Avon Opera Block. It’s our home rule form of government.

The state has traditionally provided money to local governments and left it up to taxpayers to decide how to use it. Capital projects — as well as yearly operating funds — depend on the this flow of revenue.

Without the state backing these funds with what is essentially a powerful co-signature, voters have less reason to believe the promises local officials make. The integrity of the institutions upon which we rely has been weakened.

Let’s hope this unprecedented situation is only temporary.