Governor signs bill providing local options to help counties bridge budget gaps

May 19, 2009

OLYMPIA – Today, Governor Gregoire signed legislation that will provide counties throughout the state new options for dealing responsibly with the current economic downturn without slashing critical services.

As chair of the House Finance Committee, State Rep. Ross Hunter (D-Medina) heard from numerous local governments desperately trying to balance their budgets despite restrictions that prevent them from using certain revenues to preserve existing services. King County is currently working out how to manage a $50 million shortfall for 2010. Pierce County is looking at a $10-12 million shortfall. Thurston County already trimmed $4 million from its budget and will have to cut several million more.

Hunter was particularly concerned when looking at the cuts that King County’s mental health and public safety offices were facing.

“While it’s certainly true that part of King County’s budget problem is attributable to bad spending habits, the much larger problem comes from long-festering annexation problems and structural issues,” says Hunter. “It doesn’t make sense to force counties to use revenues only for expanding certain programs when what’s needed now is protection of those programs.”

SB 5433 provides all counties more flexibility in how sales and property taxes are raised and spent. It allows King County to use existing revenues to pay for and protect things like drug courts and mental health services. Currently, portions of sales and property taxes revenues must be spent on expanding those programs, even when they are cutting existing programs.

The bill as passed by the Legislature also contained a provision allowing King County to ask voters to approve additional funding for Metro, a transit agency facing a $100 million deficit, but the Governor vetoed that section.

Despite the many changes to the legislation throughout the session, Hunter believes this will go a long way to protecting the services people care about most. “This was a priority bill for me and while I agree much remains to be done to bring King County’s spending in check, this is the right thing to do to protect vital county services.”

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