During my time as a grant administrator for the Pierce County Prosecutor’s office, the office created a Drug Court program. At Drug Court graduations I watched participants celebrate turning their lives around. Pierce County was the first county to implement this innovative program within Washington, but it has spread across the state, including King County.
Not only do participants turn their lives around, but the year of intensive work costs less than incarceration and reduces recidivism. Yet programs like Drug Court, Family Court, and Mental Health Court will be next on the chopping block if the County continues to make cuts. This is why I support temporarily raising the sales tax to close the County’s $60 million budget gap as does the Sheriff, Prosecuting Attorney, and Executive.
Seventy-eight percent of the County’s budget funds public safety efforts, including the Sheriff’s Department, Prosecuting Attorney, jail, and public defenders. Until now, public safety has been largely protected from cuts. If voters do not approve the proposed sales tax increase of 2 cents on a $10 purchase, there will be 12 percent, across-the-board, cuts. This would mean up to 60 fewer sheriff deputies and 12 fewer prosecutors to keep our neighborhoods safe.
Another all-cuts county budget is unsustainable. A balanced approach to closing the County’s budget gap will encourage our economic growth and allow us to support the core services that keep our communities safe.
A small increase in our sales tax is only part of the solution. We must continue to examine ways to drive government’s cost of doing business down. I’m encouraged by Executive Constantine’s agreement with the Washington State Council of County and City Employees’ to freeze automatic cost of living increases for county employees. This is a crucial move because labor costs account for 69 percent of the county’s General Fund expenditures. In the end, savings such as these will result in fewer job losses.
In 2009, the state closed a $9 billion revenue gap using $3 billion in Federal funds, tapping $1.5 billion in reserves and fund transfers, and cutting almost $4 billion from state government. The cuts resulted in 3,000 layoffs. During the 2010 Legislative session, we faced an additional $2.8 billion revenue shortfall. This year, we raised about $790 million in new revenue and made even more cuts – about $4.40 in cuts for every $1 raised in new revenues. All told, the cuts made over the last two years will result in over 10,000 state employees losing their jobs. The revenue raised protects things meaningful to our community such as health insurance for working families, all-day kindergarten and financial aid for at-need college students.
Balanced approaches like the one the Legislature adopted in 2010 and the one before King County voters will help to maintain the infrastructure that all families and businesses depend on – public safety, workforce training, public health, transportation and many other services – and provide a solid foundation for King County as our economy recovers.
