Monday, November 24, 2008
News Doom and Gloom in King County
Posted by Unpaid Intern on Mon, Nov 24, 2008 at 5:59 PM
Posted by News Intern Aaron Pickus
If you're looking for a good time, you might want to steer clear of the King County Courthouse.Here's what a few county officials had to say this afternoon, after the King County Council unanimously adopted a 2009 budget that included $93 million in cuts:
County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg: "We just can't do this again."
County Council Member Reagan Dunn: "These are unprecedented cuts."
County Council Member Pete Von Reichbauer: "Lifeboats aren't helpful unless we give them oars."
County Council Member Dow Constantine: "This is the worst budget in the history of King County."
County Council Member Larry Phillips: "We are certainly in bad times now."
I just got back from the King County Council's press conference, which started moments after the Council voted 9-0 in favor of adopting the 2009 budget. King County Executive Ron Sims' "lifeboat" for human services will sink on July 1, 2009, if the county doesn't come up with $8 million to keep it afloat. The county has pledged to go to the state legislature for new funding sources, but any exact details about those funding sources remain elusive. The county, meanwhile, continues to grouse about "unfunded mandates" from the state—perhaps not the best strategy when asking the Legislature for a favor.
Phillips says the county's quest for new funding "is not just a King County story. When we tell the story, it will resonate across the state. We are joining up with other Washington counties."
County officials point to the 1% annual cap on property tax increases taxes as a major cause for what Phillips calls its "horrendous problem"; however, Phillips says, he doesn't think that "we'll be demanding any particular solution."
However, those of you looking forward to wrapping your deep-fried Snickers bar in a deep-fried elephant ear while paying five dollars to puke your guts out on a whirling death trap need not fear: The King County Fair will be fully funded. The county fair was threatened with closure until very recently in the budget process.
Phillips says "the fair is one of those connections between city and rural life. We came very close to losing that over the last several decades due to sprawl." It will be funded this year using a one-time appropriation from the county's parks department. Phillips also volunteers the absolutely mind-blowing statistic that there are about 26,000 horses in King County, and the largest equestrian community in the state. With Metro cutting 5% of its total budget, we might need those horses to pull our buses around.
The Agricultural Program, which includes the county fair, will be fully funded through the year, despite earlier fears that it would be cut or placed in Sims' lifeboat. Council Member Kathy Lambert says that the agricultural programs are "in and in to stay."
In the meantime, the Domestic Violence Unit of the King County Sheriff's department has been cut in half. All domestic violence cases will now be directed to a general case file and given the same priority as other investigations. The Vice Unit and Fraud Unit have been eliminated. The King County Prosecutor's Office has cut 27 positions. King County, as Council Member Bob Ferguson put it today, is "down to the bone."
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Any news on the City budget? I think it was supposed to be approved today also.
Thank God our priorities are as they are!!
all I ever got was 4H cock and some FAA cock
horny late teen aged, alone in the barns late at night with cigarettes and some beer, god those were the days
King County will be in bankruptcy by the next cycle, the magic money days are over - for a few years
And if you think King County will get pity from the state legislature. well, I do have some donkey dick to sell
please, keep some focus, state budget is off 5 billion and mounting
welcome to the real time world of recession/depression and it will get much worse
and the Stranger is doing reviews of 40.00 dinner houses - and very expensive music tickets
brother can you spare a dime
All it is are 4-H kids showing off their farm animals and huge vegetables that farmers have grown. BOOORING.
Maybe the State and County are being too pessimistic and have done their math wrong. Then again maybe they did get it right and it is City that has strayed from the truth.
The city also put things on the backburner early in lucky coincidence-- more light synchs, streetcar network, some sidewalk upgrades, all set aside.
Good grief, I love this city.
Instead, we increase their budget in good times and bad - and let them keep the money from drug busts, instead of using that money for drug addiction treatment.
And Skyway. That's unincorporated also, isn't it? You know they want to unload those neighborhoods.
And, we jack the price for excessive usage of water and electricity to non-Seattleites more, since - unlike those of us in Seattle, they don't reduce usage when asked to by the city.
So, the hole they're in ... they dug it by not conserving when they needed to conserve.
As far as water goes, there's a bunch of suburban water districts that buy water from Seattle and resell it to homes and businesses. I don't know how they work.
@19: Counties are not authorized to assess utility or B&O taxes under state law, Will. It has nothing to do with Seattle's ownership of the water source.
@12: As for Seattle's relatively robust fiscal health, you have to credit that go-go development booster mayor. All that new density and construction may not make you happy, but it does pay the bills.
I did note the eventual drawdown for the vice squad, though, which is good.
GREAT!!!! This totalitarian outfit has abused far too many innocent people. The way the DV laws up here are worded is insane. Anyone can accuse you of DV and there's absolutely NOTHING you can do about it. I know a guy who was joking around with his wife early last December, and he tossed the pumpkin left over from Halloween down off the porch to the sidewalk where it smashed, and then he cleaned it up and threw it away. he and his wife were laughing and having fun about it all. A couple of days later, his wife was talking to her mom (busybody monster-in-law type), who lives IN YAKIMA, and the wife mentioned in passing how her husband smashed the pumpkin. The busybody monster-in-law decided that was DV (even though the wife was having fun and laughing about the pumpkin smash), and monster-in-law called the Seattle cops. My friend got arrested at work (he is an electrical engineer), which cost him his job. Since the DV authorities pay absolutely no attention to the "victim" and her testimony, they totally ignored my friend's wife trying to tell them that all that happened was that her husband tossed a pumpkin down on the sidewalk and that they both were having fun and laughing about it. The Seattle DV zealots don't care what the "victim" says. Long story short, my friend had to take a deal with the prosecutor which forces him to go to "DV Group Counseling" for an hour-and-a-half every week for the next two years (it costs $50 each time too), and he is on probation for two years, AND they imposed a "No-Contact Order" on him and his wife. Fuck Seattle and its TOTALITARIAN "liberal" DV laws and the radical scowling lesbians who got those laws pushed through.
We have dirt roads, no garbage collection, hardly any police presence. If they put a tax on the utility bills, they will have to provide city level services.
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