I generally share Craig Groshart’s healthy skepticism of taxes (Editorial, Jan. 6), and I agree that the facts are critical to solving the budget problem. However, several relevant facts are missing from Craig’s analysis.

Most importantly, state workers are paid significantly less than the private sector. So it is generally true that state employees pay less for benefits than private sector workers, but that is (far) more than offset by lower salary. In fact, your state public servants are even paid less than other government sector workers (by as much as 30 percent compared to many federal and municipal workers).

Also, the editorial implies that cost of living raises are routine for state employees but not in the private sector, and that is not the case. Before state workers had a union contract, such adjustments were not routine and were often promised but not delivered. During the same period, private sector salaries increased an average of 2.5 to 5 percent per year.

Lastly, Washington already cut around 3,000 state jobs in the last cycle and may have to cut around 1,500 more. Compared to the state’s general government workforce (about 65,000 employees), those are significant cuts. This percentage of cuts in the state workforce is higher than the net job losses in Washington’s private sector (see http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cewbd.t06.htm).

Don’t use the budget deficit as an excuse to selectively tax state workers. I know it’s easy to pick on the government, but the facts don’t support it.

Brad Helland, Bellevue