I submitted the final version of this story to the Highline Times, but it won’t be published until June 25. This gives me a little more time to work on it. One thing that I believe it is important to understand is, why the law enforcement agencies have been asked to reduce their spending.
It comes down to the difference between 5 and 7 percent. Revenues into the general fund are expected to grow by 5 percent. The county will have more money to spend, but… expenditures by the agencies this fund supports are expected to go up by 7 percent. The cost of living is outpacing revenues. The price of gas, food, labor, and cost-of-living wage increases are on one side. On the other, most of the county’s income is capped by law. I’ll get into the specifics of that later, but what it adds up to is…
The 2 percent difference equals $68 million.
It is illegal for a county to operate at a defecit. At the end of the day, so to speak, everything has to balance out to zero.
If all the county agencies continued to provide the same level of service they are providing this year, the 2 percent difference would remain in place and there would be a $68 million deficit. It’s like driving 100 miles with 80 miles worth of gas - and no coasting allowed.
So why does a portion of the burden fall on law enforcemet? 71 percent of the county’s general fund goes to law enforcement agencies. I was talking with Bob Cowan, the director of King County’s Office of Budget and Management yesterday. He said they looked at the figures for a situation where the law enforcement agencies would have been given a budget where they could continue to operate at their current levels. If they did this, every other agency would have to cut their budgets by 40 percent. In the same situation, but saying all other mandatory agencies only had to cut 10 percent, discretionary agencies, like the parks department and health and human services would recieve 75 percent less from the county.
“We don’t think that’s acceptable,” Cowan said.
What is limiting the county’s revenues? Sales tax and property tax are about 60 percent of the county’s income. Property taxes are limited to 1percent growth per year. Without being able to raise this all other revenue sources would have to go up by 13 or 14 percent to keep up with expenditures.
Also the county has no control of the fees it charges. These are set by the state legislature. Fees for license tabs, and court filing have remained the same while the cost of processing them has gone up.
According to Cowan: “Basically all of our taxing authority derives from the state.”
In conclusion, from the information Mr. Cowan provided, it looks as if the only way for agencies which reicieve money from the county’s general fund, to continue providing the same levels of service they do now, is for there to be changes by the state legislature to allow the county to raise taxes.
-SSands
