The following editorial appeared Friday in the Everett Herald.

That view is leading to some very short-sighted thinking.

Case in point: The Senate’s passage (last) week of a bill establishing five weeks of paid family leave for employees. Businesses with 25 or more workers would have to hold jobs open for employees to take the leave, during which they would get $250 a week – a figure that would grow with inflation.

Washington would become just the second state in the nation (joining California) to offer such a benefit, which would come in addition to the 12 weeks of unpaid family/medical leave already available under federal law. (The federal version applies to businesses with 50 or more employees.)

This is not an area where Washington can afford to be out front. Its generous unemployment insurance and workers’ compensation programs already make the state one of the most expensive in which to do business.

Proponents argue that the program’s costs fall mostly on employees, in the form of a 2-cents-per-hour tax on wages – about $40 per year per worker. But the costs to businesses are real and considerable, in overtime to cover for a lost worker, in training for a replacement, in lost productivity and paperwork. An amendment providing a $1,200 tax credit to employers who hold a job open won’t cover all costs.

Then consider the cost of adding to the Olympia bureaucracy – estimates are that 100 new state workers will be needed to administer the program.

And it’s unreasonable to believe that family-leave compensation wouldn’t soon rise far beyond $250 a week, a rate that doesn’t even meet the state minimum wage. To hit that mark, it would have to be $317.20.

Education is rightly the top priority for both parties this legislative session, and significant progress appears likely. Legislation ensuring that all children have health coverage has also passed. But on paid family leave, Democrats are over-reaching, and putting the state’s economy at risk.

Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire, who has attempted to walk a moderate line while proposing hefty spending increases, should send a signal of responsibility by saying she’ll veto a paid family leave bill.

Legislative Democrats need a dose of restraint. Apparently, it will have to be forced on them.