Faced with a need to find every dime he can to help balance next year’s state budget, Gov. Jay Nixon has come up with a cool million-and-a-half earmarked to help underwrite the Tour of Missouri bike race across the state.

The timing is awkward. Tour promoters say they have lined up substantial private donations for the event, now barely 60 days hence. Without the state subsidy, they will have to cancel the race, and “Without question it would be the end of the Tour of Missouri. It would not return,” says Chris Aronhalt, working for race organizer Medalist Sports LLC of Tyrone, Ga.

How big a loss would that be? In 2007 Columbia was designated a finish stage location, but the local budget item was generally regarded as a poor investment. The riders flashed through town in a wink, and local business gained no benefit. In 2008 we decided to pass, but this year we tried for a tour stop location, presumably a more promising deal. No luck.

As a general proposition the Tour of Missouri is more of a fleeting show than a substantial economic boon. It’s nice to have Lance Armstrong pedaling Missouri highways, but he and his fellow spandex-bedecked crowd sprinkle precious few greenbacks along the way. The Tour of Georgia has been canceled for lack of a key sponsor. If Nixon jerks funding, the not-for-profit promotional organization would have to pick up contracted expenses planned for underwriting with the state money and, it says, the tour would be threatened.

If you are in charge of the state budget, it’s hard to justify the tour spending for any reason other than to fulfill the state’s promise and bail out the promoters. In such parlous economic times, spending taxpayer money on this basis is a chancy deal. Even in better times it was questionable, but reneging on such late notice is not a good deal either. We should understand whichever way Nixon decides to go.