So the shortfall in the biennial budget has grown to $1.6 billion.

Are we supposed to be surprised? Didn’t the 2001 Legislature admit that it spent millions more than was anticipated in revenue which I don’t know how they got away with when the law requires a balanced budget?

Fallout from the Boeing corporate flight can only get worse. The economy is still jumpy since 9-11 and God help us if we have another terrorism act to frighten people further back in their bunkers.

Question is, of course, is what do we do about it? The budget shortfall, that is. There’s a new booklet out called “Ideas for Balancing the State Budget Without Raising Taxes” that should be a best seller if it wasn’t free. I say should instead of would because the last thing the governor (any governor) and legislature (any legislature) seem to want is advice.

The Washington Policy Center, author of the analysis of the budget situation, offered numerous ideas on transportation cost cutting in the days of Initiative 695, all of which, as I recall, were ignored. Republican legislators heed what business has to say, Democrats take their orders from the labor unions and Gov. Locke listens to Mrs. Locke.

This budget has been bloating for the last 10 years, says WPC, with a 78 percent increase in spending. At the same time, ranks of state employees swelled 25 percent, from 81,000 in 1990 to more than 102,000 today. Democratic governors served during that period, Gardner, Lowry, and Locke. In fairness, I don’t remember any Republican governor without the spending itch, either.

There are three ways to address the deficit, says WPC. One, raise taxes on individuals and businesses. Bum idea. Washington is the fifth highest taxed state; businesses carry 51 percent of the tax load, fourth highest in the nation, and the highest Western state. That’s why Boeing left.

Two, cut fixed costs and reduce services and state employees. Possible if done right, but it will take a lot more than Gov. Locke’s proposed cut of 435 employees to make any dent in cost.

Three, improve the efficiency of existing programs while slowing the rising cost of providing those services. Bingo. That’s where performance audits come in — where the state auditor checks to see if state agencies are not only spending their appropriations legally, but efficiently. The 2001 Legislature authorized a pilot program on three agencies, but Gov. Locke vetoed that but not the funding. He want to name his own auditors so he controls the outcome, the way he and the Transportation Committee investigated the Transportation Department, giving it a clean bill of health.

Also recommended is to allow private companies to compete with state employee groups to provide such services as roadway repair, capitol campus maintenance, a state motor pool, liquor sales, passenger ferry service, park operations and maintenance, prison construction and management, printing and student transportation.

A major problem with that idea is indicative of why this is called the Left Coast. There is a state law that bans private competition for government services that are, or could be in the future, provided by government workers. This is the public employee unions circling the wagons, with the approval of Democratic officials for whom they are a voting bloc.

But that law should be repealed, says WPC, in favor of competitive bidding. Also proposed was repeal of the law that requires that laborers on any public works contract be paid the prevailing wage in the area, which is always the highest union rate. It wouldn’t affect federal jobs but save on state funded contracts. Long sought by contractors, regularly stomped by labor unions.

There are other ideas, like the hiring freeze Gov. Locke finally agreed to, and this rib tickler. For those who would rather increase taxes than cut government spending, establish a Government Services Contribution Fund so they can personally support programs they want with donations out of their own pocket before advocating higher taxes for their neighbors.

(Adele Ferguson can be reached at P.O. Box 69, Hansville, WA. 98340.).