Proposed county budget would cut human services from general fund

Published 5:28 pm Wednesday, September 30, 2009

King County Executive Kurt Triplett proposed a 2010 budget on Tuesday that ends general-fund support for human services, eliminates 367 jobs, and shuts down nearly 40 parks in an effort to close the gap on a projected $56-million deficit.

Human-services organizations throughout the region are bracing for possible impacts.

“This is huge for all of us,” said Patti Skelton-McGougan, executive director of Youth Eastside Services. “It means people won’t get services when they need them most, with a difficult time and a difficult economy.”

The King County Budget Committee has scheduled four public hearings on the 2010 budget, with one of the events taking place at Oct. 7, 7 p.m. at Bellevue City Hall (450 110th Avenue Northeast).

“Most agencies are working to prepare messages for the local hearings,” said Jan Stout, chair of the Bellevue Human Services Commission.

The county’s 2009 budget included $11.4 million for human services, but all of that funding would disappear with the executive’s proposal for 2010.

The county is looking at other revenues, including an existing sales tax for mental-illness and drug-dependancy treatment, to sustain $7.7 million worth of human-services programs. But every human-services agency in the region is eyeing that money.

“We don’t know what that means and how it might trickle down to us yet,” Skelton-McGougan said.

Stout says human-services cuts would only compound the county’s problems.

“If we cut human services, we end up adding to our criminal-justice costs,” she said. “This is one of those issues where we really need to think long-term.”

As for how many people would be affected by the cuts in Bellevue, Stout says 35 percent of the city’s population speaks English as a second language, and roughly the same number live in poverty.

“Bellevue is not going to escape these cuts,” Stout said.

Bellevue boosted its human-services funding as needs grew in recent years, but that trend may stop this year as the city faces a projected $14 million deficit.

The executive’s proposed budget includes $621 million for the general fund, with three-fourths of that money slated for law, justice and public safety. But King County Sheriff Sue Rahr says the plan is bad for her agency.

“The budget, as presented, is not what it seems,” Rahr told the budget committee on Wednesday. “It does not ‘prioritize’ public safety. It does not shield criminal justice.”

Rahr said the Triplett plan would cut her agency’s unincorporated budget by six percent and eliminate 86 positions for a total of 113 lost in two years.

Triplett has already announced his intention to close King County Animal Care and Control by Nov. 1.

The Seattle Humane Society, based in Bellevue, says it is ready to fill the gap once that happens. The organization said it can double its dog capacity overnight by eliminating its boarding-care services.

“We are ready to make this one of those counties where every adoptable and treatable animal has a chance to go to a home of his or her own,” said the organization’s CEO, Brenda Barnette.

Both of the King County executive candidates, Dow Constantine and Susan Hutchison, have commented on Triplett’s 2010 budget.

Constantine, who has a vote in the matter as a King County councilmember, released a statement saying he would look for further administrative cuts and duplicative middle-management positions that could be eliminated.

“We can better spend those resources on providing direct services to the taxpayers,” he said.

Constantine stated he will not support closing parks or taking officers off the streets. He also said he may propose using one-third of the county’s $15 million “rainy-day fund” to keep neighborhood parks open and restore cuts to both human services and public safety.

Hutchison blamed the county deficit on years of “reckless spending and unsustainable budgets.” She attacked the council for maintaining its original budget after dropping from 13 members to nine.

Hutchison said she would prioritize state mandates, which she listed as public safety, law and justice, public health, and unincorporated services.