OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) - Two citizens initiatives likely to qualify for the November ballot would compound an already gloomy budget situation if approved by voters, possibly pushing the state's shortfall past $3 billion.

Kate Lykins Brown, a spokeswoman for the state Office of Financial Management, said reports outlining initiative costs won't be completed before September.

But preliminary estimates from the Department of Revenue indicate Tim Eyman's traffic congestion measure - Initiative 985 - would cost the state about $290 million during the next two-year budget cycle and the rest of the current one.

And the campaign for Initiative 1029, a home care worker training measure backed by the powerful Service Employees International Union, believes its measure would cost at least $23 million during that time based on a nonpartisan analysis on similar measures before the Legislature this year.

Campaigns for both measures turned in more than 300,000 signatures last week, providing an ample cushion for the 225,000 valid signatures from registered voters they'll need to qualify for the November ballot.

Last week, nonpartisan staff from the Senate Ways and Means Committee released a new six-year budget outlook that pegged the projected budget hole facing legislators at about $2.7 billion.

Add the two initiatives on top of that and the projection reaches $3 billion, representing somewhere near 9 percent of state spending on general programs.

And that does not assume starting the working family tax credit - a sales tax break for the poor adopted but not funded this year - that would make the shortfall larger.

There still are several economic forecasts to go before lawmakers settle on revenue projections they'll actually use and in that time the picture could brighten. But in that time things also could get worse.

"I don't expect any of the news to be very good," said Sen. Margarita Prentice, a Renton Democrat and chairwoman of the budget writing committee. "It's more of a question of how bad are things going to get."

Though lawmakers have found creative ways in the past decade to push off such decisions, budget gaps are generally plugged by cutting spending or raising taxes.

"No one wants to be raising taxes," Prentice said. "People are really hurting."

But trimming something on the order of $3 billion would be no easy task. For instance, operating the entire system of state community colleges and universities during the current two-year budget cycle is expected to cost $3.6 billion.

Eyman's measure, in part, would direct 15 percent of all taxes collected on the sale of new and used vehicles into an account that would support traffic programs to synchronize traffic lights, open car pool lanes and pay for more highway crews to clear accidents.

That money currently goes into the state's general fund to pay for an array of state programs. Eyman said he's comfortable paying for the measure by cutting whatever the Legislature decides are its lowest priorities.

The home care measure aims to boost training and set certification standards for home care workers and is based on legislation introduced but not approved this year in Olympia.

Worries about its costs don't stand up to its benefits, campaign manager Jeff Parsons said.

"How can we not afford to take care of our seniors?" he asked. "They need to have the best care we as citizens of the state of Washington can afford to give them."