The news across our state is rife with images of the state Legislature and Gov. Christine Gregoire sweating bullets on how to keep our state afloat in these tough times.

National unemployment continues to rise. On an hourly basis, we hear what programs are on the chopping block that might have to be slashed, reduced or thrown out all together.

You might be surprised to know this, but our Legislature is not struggling with a smaller budget. In fact, tax revenues will rise 5 percent over the next two years, partly the result of the permanent $400 million tax increase imposed on our state from the 2005 legislative session. That’s right, we have more money in our state budget than we did last year, not less. Not many reporters are telling that story.

In fact, as Paul Guppy, vice president for research at the Washington Policy Center (WPC) recently observed: “Government shrinkage never happens.” The government is not shrinking, but continues to grow. We, however, get poorer relative to the government’s growth.

The impression across the state among citizens and various interest groups is that our government resources are dwindling and, like a Charles Dickens novel, we might any day now expect to see paupers selling apples on street corners. Almost nobody seems to get the picture that government has grown, and continues to grow, which certainly contributes to the dwindling of private resources and private income. That’s because in Olympia, when the rate of increase in revenue slows down, it’s considered a budget cut. A penny taken from us is a dollar spent.

Olympia, like Mount Olympus, is a place of fantastic distortions and Greek mythic-sized power plays between lobbying gods and legislators, throwing thunderbolt tantrums (READ: state labor unions) and declaring wars over the public money pie. The appetite for spending is truly voracious.

Is it a coincidence that our personal budgets at home are shrinking at the same time the government is growing? To use the greek mythology analogy, the mortals on Earth are pushing heavier and heavier boulders and columns up the acropolis to build the gods bigger and better temples and chariots. When we slow our pace, they call us lazy. We’re just not working hard enough.

The problem our Legislature is facing is that revenue from all the taxes we pay is not keeping up with the increased spending obligations to which our government has committed us. According to research available from the WPC, state spending increased 10 percent in the 2003-2005 biennium and another 19 percent in the 2007-2009 biennium. Both budgets increased spending well ahead of projected income to the state.

The Washington Policy Center gave a luncheon presentation in Olympia last Wednesday, laying out detailed recommendations for how to build a more sustainable state budget. Their policy analysts have examined the budget and identified $3 billion in projects and expenditures as “do not buy” items. Items like landscaping highways, paying a poet laureate, and acquiring “artistic, cultural and historic collections” seem like luxury items during these tough times.

In fact, the state auditor’s office has identified $2.4 billion in spending that could be postponed or cancelled all together. In between these two findings ($2.4 billion and $3 billion) from two different organizations (the WPC and the State Auditor’s Office), there is surely agreement on what is reasonably considered wasteful unnecessary spending, or perhaps spending that is beyond the appropriate role of taxpayer obligations.

Furthermore, a budgeting tool called “Priorities of Government” was adopted by our Office of Financial Management in 2008, and is providing some guidance and restraint on previous “free for all” approaches.

We have much work to do. As I write this, the local press is giddy about the governor’s trip to the other Washington, where she will “graciously” accept the federal “stimulus” money from President Barack Obama.

I just can’t shake this feeling that more money in her hands is not a good thing for us.