The bad news for lawmakers in Olympia is the state’s March revenue forecast is even worse than expected. Chang Mook Sohn, Washington’s chief economist, told the bipartisan Revenue Forecast Council that tax collections would be $200 million lower than anticipated just a few months ago, and he doesn’t see much improvement until 2004.

Sohn’s latest figures mean Washington State’s budget deficit now stands at $2.6 billion. The news sent some legislators scurrying to the microphones to call for tax increases. In reality, that would be the worst thing they could do.

Families are struggling to make ends meet. They can’t afford to pay higher taxes. So are employers — our state’s job providers.

The Washington Research Council (WRC) estimates that employers, who pay half of all the state and local taxes, have already been hit with more than $400 million in higher worker compensation and unemployment insurance taxes this year. On top of that, employers are seeing skyrocketing costs for liability insurance, health care and energy. The cumulative impact of those additional costs is forcing more layoffs and cutbacks.

WRC finds Washington has lost more than 68,000 jobs over the last couple of years. A tax increase would only kill more jobs. On the other hand, the $400 million employers will pay in higher taxes and fees in 2003 could be used to save employee health coverage or put more than 10,000 people back to work.

Case in point: Lori Swanson, co-owner of Thompson Roofing and Gutter in Tacoma, already laid off 12 of her 75 workers. Now, she faces an increase of almost $215,000 in workers’ comp and unemployment taxes, liability insurance, and health care costs for 2003 - equal to the wages of nine or ten roofing workers.

 In Spokane, Curtis Fackler of Pay Systems of America has seen five of his clients — including one company with 40 employees — go out of business over the past year. Every one of them cited increases in unemployment insurance and workers’ compensation taxes as a factor in their demise. One of those firms had moved from California to Spokane, but soon decided that the cost of doing business in Washington is just too high.

A vivid example of what Washington employers go through can be found at the St. Vincent De Paul food bank and thrift store in Spokane. The charity, which hires handicapped and low-income workers, will see its workers’ compensation taxes increase by $40,000 in 2003. Ironically, because workers pay almost one-third of those taxes, the increase will wipe out the automatic minimum wage increase the charity’s employees received this year.

The bottom line is Gov. Locke recognizes the precarious nature of our economy and has made some hard choices in drafting his budget. He knows that our state can longer fund all of the current programs, and that state government must live within current revenues.

Now, as we enter the home stretch of the legislative session, lawmakers in Olympia must do the same. That means lawmakers will have to do what Gov. Locke has done — choose which programs to fund and what to do without.

Tough choices? You bet! But families and employers make similarly tough choices every day in order to live within their means, and government must find a way to do the same.