The Metropolitan King County unanimously approved a $5.001 billion 2010 King County Budget on Monday, with targeted efficiencies to preserve nearly all current funding for public safety and criminal justice and avert threatened cuts to Metro bus service.
The overall budget contains no new taxes and is $12 million lower than the $5.013 billion proposed by the County Executive. It cuts 311 full-time equivalent (FTE) employee positions, 60 more than the number proposed by the Executive.
Highlights of the new budget include the following:
• Public Safety: Savings identified by the council allowed budget writers to limit any reduction to the criminal justice system to no more than one percent from 2009 levels. Making use of new legislative authority to redistribute sales tax revenues for mental illness and drug dependency programs, this budget provides funding support for:
Sheriff deputy patrols and law enforcement activities necessary to protect citizens in unincorporated areas and the region as a whole; Mental Health Court and the relicensing program administered by King County District Court; probation services that protect the public while reducing costs of incarceration; enforcement programs by the Prosecuting Attorney that have reduced auto theft, burglary and gun violence; adult and juvenile drug courts, Unified Family Court and funding for the King County Law Library and Maleng Regional Justice Center.
• Human Services: By reprioritizing a portion of the $3 million set aside in the Executive Proposed Budget to transition the county out of animal sheltering, the council was able to restore nearly $1.4 million in dedicated and general funds for programs for the prevention of domestic violence and sexual assault and for legal aid programs that help survivors obtain restraining orders and navigate the judicial system.
• Transit: The budget preserves 310,000 hours of bus service that was threatened to be cut under the Executive Proposed Budget and Metro service will remain at current levels over the next two years, despite the recessionary drop in sales tax revenues that support Metro.
Among practices to be implemented by Metro are more efficient scheduling of buses and operators, reducing layover times; scheduling bus routes based on the system as a whole which will reduce “deadheading” when buses return empty to a home base at the end of each operator’s shift; and increased training and use of Metro’s scheduling software to identify opportunities where one bus and operator can better handle routes.
• Public Health: The budget decreases general fund support for Public Health by $4.5 million to $26.5 million. To alleviate reductions in service delivery, the county will partner with community providers at the Northshore and Kent Public Health Centers.
• King County Parks: The council’s budget authorizes funding to keep 39 parks which had been targeted for closure, open next year, but the revenues to back that authority are still being developed.
• General Government: The budget reduces the County Council’s budget by 13 percent and cuts seven positions, four of which were filled at the start of this year. The budget for the Executive’s office has been reduced by 10 percent.
For more information about the 2010 King County Budget, visit www.kingcounty.gov/council.
