This is why Bob Riley's got gumption.

It's budget time in Alabama, and concern persists that there's not enough money on the horizon to pay the state's future bills. Alabama's not broke; it's recession-poor. And it's the job of the governor and his wonks to put together budgets that are balanced and viable.

Undeterred, Clay County's finest strode to the lectern a few days ago, gave worry-wart legislators his telltale grin and, in essence, said: Don't worry, the money will be there. Let's get on with the state's business.

Translation: Riley presented proposed budgets without cuts to state agencies, without cuts to state schools, without cuts to almost anything.

Yep, Riley's got gumption.

Among other things.

Problem is, Riley's premise is couched on one of these political slippery slopes on which critics and proponents can each claim victory. Lord knows where the lame-duck governor will fall among that group.

Admittedly, Riley and his wonk team have based a portion of their 2010 budgets on the arrival of another dose of federal stimulus money. To say that infusion of cash isn't needed is like saying Riley doesn't look good in cowboy boots.

Yet, here's where it gets sticky as molasses.

Since Tuesday's State of the State address, Alabama's been lathered with discussions about the use of money not in the bank for state budget proposals. The Associated Press, in its coverage of Riley's plans, wrote that the governor is relying on a second stimulus bill "to balance the next state budgets and prevent major cuts in services."

On Thursday, Riley's office went on the offensive. An e-mail from a Riley spokesman said the budget proposals "do not rely" on $1 billion of federal stimulus money to be balanced, and that if the bill doesn't become law, it would "only mean we would not have that money ($500 million of $1 billion) for transportation projects."

Meanwhile, the governor's stance hasn't changed. Riley doesn't like the bill, thinks it's poorly designed, but he needs the bill to pass. Otherwise, the proposed budgets he presented to the state Legislature three days ago may be inadequate and substantive alterations might have to be made.

Which could mean cuts — or not, given Thursday's message from Riley's office.

But Riley and his Cabinet believe the second stimulus will pass — is that optimism (to save the state's hide) or disappointment (to remain true to staunch GOP opposition to the bill)? Either way, they're banking on the arrival of $1 billion of federal money that would carry with it the fingerprints of the Obama administration, an unappealing trait for nearly all hard-line Republicans. It's a quirky yet intriguing political twist to the Great Recession.

Cheer something you dislike.

Welcome something you don't support.

Use something you'd prefer not to get.

Understand?

What was it Riley said about this conundrum? "If you anticipate something is going to pass, it would be asinine for us to go in and build a budget that would require people maybe to be laid off and maybe furloughed," he told the Associated Press.

True enough.

That's why it's hard to overwhelmingly pan Riley's tactic. He used the formula last year, he said, and Alabama state government didn't implode. The Capitol still stands. Given that, might as well give it another try.

Where Riley's budget proposal leaks is in its surprisingly cheery expectations for the state's economic recovery. It's good that the state's financial team is optimistic; that's better for the soul.

But it's perplexing that the governor's office expects the state's economy to markedly improve in 2010, which, in turn, would increase the state's take on tax collections. Riley expects that increase to be as much as 2 percent; in good years, that's a noteworthy amount; in recession years such as this, that's a goldmine.

Riley's expecting that goldmine.

Meanwhile, unemployment in Black Belt counties is among the nation's worst; the state's unemployment rate remains in double figures; state automakers are coming off a nasty 2009, and economists say this year may be only marginally better; and legislators and educators have spent the last few months bracing for cuts that everyone but the governor's office sees as increasingly possible, if not probable.

That's why it's tough to view the genesis of Riley's optimism, or to buy in to the hopefulness that he's selling.

Say this much about the governor: In a time of pessimism fueled by the recession and joblessness, of Alabamians tired of it all, Riley's promoting a different theme.

He's promoting can-do, not can't-do, optimism over pessimism, brash confidence over conservative planning. I'm not sure that's the best method, but that's what Alabama's got, for now.

Of course, if the schooner carrying that federal-stimulus booty doesn't come to port, then we've got a problem.

If that happens, perhaps Riley's gumption can fix that, too.