DEMOCRATS in Olympia are talking of taxes. There will be a time for that, and there should be, but it is not now.

Two things must be done first. One is to write a no-new-taxes budget that legislators can live with. In this budget they cannot cut school money protected by the state constitution. They should not cut higher education, which has been seriously damaged already. That leaves the other agencies, starting with Social and Health Services and moving on to Corrections, Licensing, and so on.

The tax proposal can offer to "buy back" these cuts, but first the cuts must be agreed upon.

Legislators must also enact reforms to close some of the gap between revenue and spending in the long run. Always the problem with such reforms is that the savings are long-term and the need for money is immediate. But this is an excuse for doing nothing about any problem that lasts beyond a year.

Legislators tell us the immediate shortfall cannot be solved with reform. But part of it can. Take state employee pensions. Sen. Joseph Zarelli, R-Ridgefield, has a common-sense proposal that would lower the state's long-term liability while maintaining a solid retirement benefit. That the state employee unions oppose it is not an acceptable reason to pass up the opportunity.

Another sensible reform is the proposal by state Rep. Reuven Carlyle, D-Seattle, to make all tax preferences periodically expire unless re-enacted. His bill would sunset tax favors to fraternal organizations and credit unions, people who raise chickens and organize boxing matches, and so on. It is a long list.

Only after some authentic, long-term reforms have been made and after the short-term budget is set should legislators consider a tax package to offer to voters.

Legislators should be careful. In recent years, Washington voters have rejected a state income tax and a 1 percentage point increase in the state sales tax. They rejected these ideas soundly.

This time around, legislators should think of something else.