OLYMPIA — Meet the secret ingredient in the state budget: Spam.

Along with tax increases on cigarettes and hard liquor, the recently released Senate budget proposal would slap a higher tax on canned meat.

Spam, Vienna Sausages, potted ham, chili con carne — no tinned meat would be spared the higher tax rate. The business-and-occupation tax is paid by the producer, not the consumer, though taxes do have a way of trickling down the food chain.

"That's ridiculous," scoffed Richard Wilson of Olympia, who was drinking whiskey and smoking, though not eating tinned meat, at a bar called King Solomon's Reef yesterday afternoon.

"They're actually raising taxes on poor people who can't really afford it," Wilson said. "You know they don't have much money if they're eating chili out of a can."

Even some who believe lawmakers should raise taxes to pay for human services felt a twinge of sorrow.

"I'm torn between my love for Vienna Sausages and my love for state services," said Olympia lobbyist Lauren Moughon, who called the canned meat product a "guilty, guilty pleasure."

Producers and fans of meat in a can caught a break earlier this year when the state Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Tacoma-based makers of Nalley's Chili Con Carne, saying nonperishable meat products should be taxed at the same, lower rate as perishable meat products.

Of course, the definition of "perishable" may be a matter of taste, Justice Susan Owens noted in her opinion: "Once canned, the chili has an indefinite shelf life in terms of remaining fit for human consumption."

Nevertheless, Nalley's Chili and other manufacturers that turn perishable meat into nonperishable meat products should be taxed at 0.138 percent, the court ruled, not 0.484 percent.

The Legislature is likely to take action this year to make canned-meat producers pay the higher rate — a change that's worth $11 million a year to the state budget.

With a budget deficit of $1.6 billion for the upcoming two-year budget cycle, legislators say they'll take money where they can get it — including a tin of meat.

The budget proposals from Senate Democrats and Gov. Christine Gregoire both include higher cigarette taxes, and Senate Democrats also want to impose a higher liquor tax.