The arrival of vaccines and the prospect of economic recovery bring with them a sense of hope, but it’s also imperative for everyone to take off the rose-colored glasses and see things realistically.

And realistically, the taxpayer simply can’t afford to underwrite pay raises now for the public workers in their employ. Given the deep decline in state tax revenues, that notion should be off the table.

And yet, the state Legislature is moving along a series of bills that would enable any pay increases that Gov. David Ige possibly could approve in contract negotiations with union leaders that are ongoing now.

The most rational stance for elected leaders to take would be to close off this mechanism and simply assert that the state has no money, an argument that has the advantage of being true.

Instead, lawmakers contend that this is “pro forma” legislation, mere vehicle measures that could be used to enact upward pay adjustments. Ige has projected a $1.4 billion deficit for the next four fiscal years, so legislators should consider raises to be an unlikely prospect.

More recently, odds have improved for Congress enacting substantial federal help to businesses, individuals and state and local governments. The governor, who had signaled after the initial economic plunge caused by the pandemic that labor savings such as furloughs would be needed, has acknowledged the improvement in the fiscal outlook.

Still, 10% cuts are anticipated across most state agencies, although the forecast for COVID-19 relief and more optimistic revenue projections recently have prompted Ige to limit state Department of Education cuts to 2.5% in light of subpar student learning.

Further, the islands’ congressional delegation is also hopeful. U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz is bullish on chances for an aid package approaching President Joe Biden’s proposed $1.9 trillion to pass. Schatz, speaking Wednesday in a Honolulu Star-Advertiser “Spotlight Hawaii” webcast, said he believes the funding would prevent layoffs and furloughs of Hawaii public workers.

That is good news, but anything extra should go toward keeping the social safety net intact. Defending raises becomes impossible.

To begin with, such an allocation would not read well with the taxpaying public, whose perception is that government services have become thinner during the pandemic. The problems with delivering unemployment benefits, to begin with, have been a yearlong frustration, and the struggles of parents to manage home-based studies as well as their own livelihoods have been painful.

The public rightly believes no raises are merited at this time.

And it can’t be forgotten that union raises were handed out a year ago as well. The same mechanisms were in place during the last legislative session to enable the approval of public worker raises totaling $150 million.

There was some logic behind that move, however controversial it was as the pandemic crisis settled in. Last spring, lawmakers said that a separate set of collective bargaining units had received their negotiated raises the previous year, when the economy was in excellent shape, making it hard to deny other workers their pay increases due to timing beyond their control.

The same cannot be said in 2021. Now that the previous pay raises have been settled equitably, it makes no sense to leave the door open for any more in the near term, when there are so many competing demands on limited state funds.

The enabling bills — more than two dozen of them — should be shelved for the session. If the economy bounces back well enough over the coming year, lawmakers could make a more defensible argument for a pay increase next session.

There certainly isn’t a reasonable case for one now.