The state revenue forecast is out and Washington is in a bad way. The budget shortfall has ballooned to around $8 billion, up from an earlier estimate of nearly $6 billion, according to Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane.

The shortfall is the difference between how much tax revenue the state expects to collect over the next two years compared to the amount of money needed to maintain state services at current levels and cover expenses such as pay increases for state workers.

The shortfall is growing because people are spending less money, which means there's less tax revenue coming to the state. More than 70 percent of the money collected by the state comes from sales and business-and-occupation taxes.

The projected $8 billion shortfall takes into account a shortfall in the current $33.6 billion two-year budget plus a projected gap in the 2009-11 budget that lawmakers are writing this session.

The legislature recently took the first step at closing the shortfall by approving a series of early cuts that are expected to save the state about $580 million in the current budget.