The top story in Stateline today is all about Washington: “Boeing and Microsoft boom, but Washington State busts.”  It’s a downer of a story, which will be no surprise to anyone that’s been paying attention to the state budget over the last few years.

The article says that Washington’s budget problems stand out from those of other states and argues that some sources of the problem are our tax structure, stalled construction, and the economy in general, which is affecting consumer confidence.

Rep. Ed Orcutt is quoted: “I don’t know what we can do to encourage job growth. But we can do some things to stop discouraging it.”  The article continues,

By and large, however, many state lawmakers have reluctantly come to the conclusion that fixing Washington’s economy, at least in the short term, is out of the state’s hands. State government cannot control what happens in the halls of Congress, and it cannot unfreeze national credit markets or drive home prices upward. Meanwhile, the deep budget cuts that are being planned for later this year are likely to result in more public-sector layoffs, perpetuating the bad news.

State lawmakers may not be able to fix the economy, but there are steps they can take to make state government more effective.  The Thrive Washington series set out a number of recommendations for the state along those lines.