It was when I stumbled across the $73,000 study of the merits of agricultural fairs that I realized drastic measures were in order.

It seems trivial in context of a $26 billion state budget. But it was late in my long slog through reading all 411 pages, and I snapped. I'd sighed over $469,000 for an ombudsman to settle fights at mobile-home parks.

I'd already recovered from the news we're spending $300,000 to market wine.

I'd tried to move past the idiocy of giving the man who presides over the state Senate, Lt. Gov. Brad Owen, a 37 percent budget boost so he can lobby the state Senate.

On page 258, though, I lost it. "Agricultural Fair Study, $73,000," it said. A bill report noted that county fairs have never had "their economic contributions quantified nor their social benefits evaluated."

There could be a reason for that. Like maybe it's a waste of time and money?

I went into my two-day odyssey through the budget expecting to like what I found.

State lawmakers this year actually had more money but not enough to maintain current services. They also wanted pay raises for teachers and money to reduce class sizes — both overdue, in my view.

They accomplished all this, they crowed this weekend, by holding the line on other government spending while raising cigarette and estate taxes.

It sounded to me like the budget I would have wanted.

Total spending bloated by nearly $3 billion, up 12 percent. Increases were huge in some areas. The insurance commissioner's budget rose 20 percent (new computers). State Patrol, up 16 percent (new crime labs). The Columbia River Gorge Commission, up 37 percent (new planners).

The Office of Minority and Women's Business Enterprises grew 58 percent (bigger workload due to new road projects).

Major new multimillion-dollar programs were established for the attorney general (consumer protection) and auditor (performance audits).

Not a single program was eliminated anywhere in the state, budget staffers say.

There's more: Lawmakers ordered two dozen new studies, including doozies such as how we can make money off the 2010 Olympics (which will be held in Canada). The primary agency that does studies for state government saw its budget shoot up 23 percent.

I'm no basher of key government services. Some of this stuff drives me crazy precisely because it's such gravy, far afield from what people expect government to do.

When you're trying to make a case that you should be trusted to raise taxes for schools and roads, it undermines everything you're saying.

Now Gov. Christine Gregoire will pore through the 411-page budget. I wonder how she'll react.

She ought to veto it. Or at least cross out parts of it with a red pen.

Gregoire said she was going to come to Olympia to "blow through the bureaucracy."

If she signs this budget, she'll only be puffing it up.

Danny Westneat's column appears Wednesday and Friday. Reach him at 206-464-2086 or dwestneat@seattletimes.com