There’s no way this latest legislative session was going to be good. For anyone. Legislators know it, and now business owners and citizens will know it in no uncertain terms.

“Unfortunately, the people of Washington will feel the pain of the difficult choices required to address the budget crisis. Like nearly every other state, we are managing our way through a deep recession, and severe budget cuts across the entire government were unavoidable,” said Gov. Chris Gregoire in her official post-session agitprop. “We also prepared our state for a 21st century economy — especially in the monumental steps we took to build a transportation system that will create jobs and help us emerge stronger from this recession.”

Well, yes. Probably. But there are some people that will feel the bite of all these legislative adjustments more than others.

Take bar owners, for example. Apparently people like to drink more when they’re unemployed, or waiting for the axe to fall if they still have a job. This has driven bar and tavern revenues up a bit. As one of the few growth industries left, state legislators have decided that it’s time to take some more from your local watering hole. The hike comes in the form of an increase in liquor license fees. The 10.5 percent increase would mean extra expenses for bar owners — between $20 and $200, depending on the kind of license. The most expensive license would increase to $2,210.

Some state Democrats, who ironically seem to like to tax so-called sin industries more than their conservative counterparts, justify the hike by pointing out that fees for liquor licenses haven’t been raised in decades. Two lessons here, voters. First, Democrats can be sticks in the mud too. Second, most Republicans care more about money than they do about Christian morals. Duh.

Considering the average rate of inflation, a 10 percent hike can’t really be considered all that unfair, say supporters of Engrossed House Bill 2358, which is on its way to the governor to be signed this week.

This isn’t a new move on Washington’s part. We live in a state where so-called sin taxes abound — cigarettes, liquor and soda, which are sinful, are already taxed to the hilt. Our last governor — you remember Gary? — did the same thing when he was leaving office, and our state faced a significant budget shortfall. Looking back, we may have gotten off easy. Locke dropped a truckload of nickel-and-dime fees on soda, beer, wine, and hard liquor totaling more than $500 million.  His tax plan raised the tax on a can of soda or beer by 5 cents, the wine tax by a quarter or more per bottle, and the excise tax on hard liquor by 5 cents per dollar spent, plus a liter tax increase of $1.

So we may not have raised fees on liquor licenses in decades, but we’ve been nailing bar and tavern owners in dozens of different ways for years. Just ask Jack McQuade, co-owner of The Swiss in downtown Tacoma.

McQuade says The Swiss has been keeping its head above water, but hasn’t been experiencing all this growth state officials are using as justification for the hike in liquor fees.

“We try to keep everything positive,” he says. “Lunches are a little slower, but the weekends are pretty strong. We’re looking at ways to give people the best value we can right now. We’re having declines just like everyone else. But in good times people drink, and in bad times people drink. We may not be experiencing as much decline as some other businesses.”

But all those fees and taxes add up, says McQuade. And every little hike hurts in one way or another. Seen outside the context of all the other fees and challenges facing bar owners, this latest hike begins to look a little more significant than its proponents might want to admit.

“I think we really do pay our fair share of taxes,” says McQuade. “And they tax all that stuff all the time.”