Many more service providers in the U.S. likely will be forced to pitch in to solve state and local government revenue shortfalls.

Sales taxes today mainly, though not exclusively, hit sales of tangible goods such as sofas and SUVs.

Faced with the worst budget crisis in a generation, many states are looking to expand sales taxes to services. The goal, legislators say, is to broaden the tax base to cover a broader swath of the economy as traditional sources of tax revenue decline.

Although in early stages, service taxes are being considered by legislators around the U.S. In Kentucky, representatives have introduced a measure to extend sales taxes to some high-end services such as limousines and balloon rides.

In North Carolina, the legislature last year considered, but didn't pass, a proposal to tax services such as car repairs and lawn care.

In Maine, the legislature last year passed a law that would lower income taxes for most residents but extend sales taxes to services such as car repairs and dry cleaning. It faces a voter referendum in June.

Many states already tax some services, such as hotel rooms and restaurant tabs. And the service sector is indirectly taxed through the wages of employees providing those services.

Hawaii and New Mexico tax the broadest array of services, more than 150, including movie tickets, according to the Federation of Tax Administrators, a trade group of state tax agencies.

"The tax system ought to reflect the nature of our current economy," says Gerald Parsky, an investment manager who last year chaired a commission on California's tax system. The panel suggested the state lower personal income taxes, eliminate the state's corporate income and sales taxes, and replace the revenue with a "business net receipts tax" that would tax a greater share of businesses.

"The sales tax in California doesnt reach the service economy and yet the state is providing benefits to those people," said Parsky, a Republican. The idea went nowhere.

A policy advocate for the California Chamber of Commerce said her organization opposed the idea for a number of reasons, including potential harm to smaller businesses such as dry cleaners. "These small businesses are trying to sell their services and they are going to essentially have to tell their consumers now the prices have increased," she said.

The consumption of services, at about $6.1 trillion a year, accounts for about two-thirds of total U.S. consumer spending, yet services aren't widely taxed by state and local governments. This is rooted partly in history: Sales taxes in the U.S. began to spread around 75 years ago when the service sector was a smaller share of the economy, and legislators have generally found it easier to raise existing sales tax rates than to extend the tax to new areas.

As the service sector's share of the economy has grown, so has its influence. Whenever a service is proposed, everybody in that profession shows up to protest it.

State and local governments are funded almost entirely by taxes on sales, property, personal income and corporate profits, which together account for 81 percent of state and local tax revenue.

High unemployment and thriftier consumer behavior have eaten into income and sales taxes. And in many places falling real-estate prices have reduced property taxes, the biggest source of local funding and normally a stable revenue stream.