If the state wants to raise revenue without completely gutting the state's services network, it's going to have to start closing some of the large corporate loopholes in the state tax code. At least that's the argument from some liberal commentators, including the Washington Budget and Policy Center, a lefty Olympia think tank, which argued in an editorial on its Schmudget blog this morning that closing the loopholes are the one last-ditch option the state has left to raise money.

So I called the head of the House Finance Committee to see how they might go about doing that. The answer from Finance Chair Rep. Ross Hunter (D-48): "1053 passed," a reference to the Tim Eyman-backed initiative that reinstates a two-third requirement to increase taxes; closing corporate loopholes is technically considered a tax increase by the state.

Hunter, like Governor Gregoire, is resigning himself to a meat-cleaver, all-cuts budget. "Because of 1053, it basically takes a two-thirds majority to pass any bill to raise revenue. So no, I'm not putting a lot of effort into closing tax loopholes."

Hunter said he wasn't working on any kind of creative solutions to the budget mess (the kind the Seattle Times said would be forced upon legislators if 1053 passed). Instead, he says his committee will focus on ideas for making the state's tax system more efficient, like merging the Departments of Revenue, Employment Security, and Labor and Industries into one entity, and allowing businesses to file one B&O tax return to the state, in place of the dozens they currently have to file with city governments.