Rhode Island cannot afford to continue spending on state government — notably public-employee benefits and welfare programs — at a much faster clip than its revenues can grow. It must recalibrate its government to economic realities.

That task should have been well under way years ago, when massive deficits gathered on the horizon. Unfortunately, the hurricane has now hit full force, with deficits of $400 million. Restructuring the government and dealing with the deficits at the same time is an immense challenge.

The $6.88 billion budget Governor Carcieri submitted last Friday — merely his recommendation; the General Assembly comes up with the real budget — does not appear to go the full distance required. It relies on shaky assumptions, such as that public-employee unions will go along with $60.6 million in personnel savings, or that the General Assembly will retreat on privatization and allow savings in that area, or that the federal government will approve $137 million in state and federal Medicaid spending cuts in the state.

Meanwhile, however, the governor is right to push for systematic changes in social services to bring Rhode Island more in line with the practices of its much larger, neighboring states and its own ability to pay for such programs.

And he is right to stress that Rhode Island must not try to plug its budget gap with one-time gimmicks such as selling off its lottery or its major bridges, and that the essential problem with Rhode Island government is not that the state is undertaxed.

Indeed, Rhode Islanders pay some of America’s highest taxes — taxes so high that they appear to be driving away the middle class to other states, including Massachusetts, which has hardly enjoyed a historical reputation as a tax haven. When rich and middle-class people leave, they take their tax dollars and businesses with them, making it ever-harder for Rhode Island to pay for government activities.

The only sustainable approach, in the long run, is to swell the state’s coffers by generating new jobs and new taxpayers — and to keep the well-off taxpayers the state already has, since the loss of even a few could make deficits drastically worse.

That is why it is alarming to hear Senate President Joseph Montalbano signal he is open to the idea of reversing recent reforms in income- and capital-gains taxes that bring Rhode Island more in line with neighboring states. It would be folly to force out more such taxpayers at the very moment that crushing deficits confront the state.

There may be room to raise taxes in areas — user fees and the like — that do not directly harm the state’s economy, and thus slow its tax-revenue stream. And there are government agencies and programs that should be quickly eliminated.

Fortunately, Steven Costantino, chairman of the powerful House Finance Committee, said last week he is not interested “at this time” in raising taxes. That seems to reflect House Speaker William Murphy’s oft-stated concern that Rhode Island must get its economy moving, rather than swell government with ever-bigger infusions of tax dollars from a dwindling number of taxpayers.