By Susanna Ray
Herald Writer
OLYMPIA — Cuts to the public health budget could cost lives and make the state vulnerable to an outbreak of disease, Snohomish County health officials warned state legislators Friday.
Snohomish Health District director Dr. M. Ward Hinds testified that even without the added threat of bioterrorism attacks involving small pox or anthrax, county health agencies won’t be able to handle public health menaces such as meningitis or E. coli infections unless the state provides the funds it has promised.
After the passage of Initiative 695 in 1999 led to the cancellation of the motor vehicle excise tax, which had helped fund health districts, the state agreed to provide backfill money. Those funds make up about half of the Snohomish Health District’s discretionary budget. The county had hoped for $2.3 million from the state this year.
But with a $1.3 billion budget hole, the $72 million planned for health districts, cities and counties is one place Gov. Gary Locke has proposed cutting.
"The 695 backfill money was temporary and never intended as a long-term solution," said Locke spokesman Pearse Edwards.
But Hinds, who also heads the Washington State Association of Local Public Health Officials, said lives will be endangered if the state doesn’t help out.
"We are currently underprepared to deal with any sizable disease outbreak in our state, whether it be from natural causes or bio-terrorism," Hinds told members of the House Health Care Committee. "This became very clear last October and November as we struggled to try to deal with the huge number of phone calls and requests that came from law enforcement and other emergency responders to help them deal with the large number of concerns about contaminated letters and powders. And that was without a single case of anthrax in our state.
"This is the time to strengthen our local public health system, not to weaken it as would happen with the governor’s proposed budget."
It’s not a matter of when, but how soon, the next major occurrence of bioterrorism happens somewhere in the country, said Pat Libby, president of the National Association of County and City Health Officials.
Health agencies do expect some federal money to help with bioterrorism response planning, but that money can’t be used for regular health district activities and shouldn’t be considered a replacement for state funding, Libby said.
"I think the committee is well aware of the problem," chairwoman Rep. Eileen Cody, D-Seattle, told the panel of health officials. "But as you know, we also are well aware of the budget, and so we hope that we can reach some amicable solution."
Political postscript: Homeland security will be the topic of Thursday’smeeting of the Snohomish County Republican Women’s Club. Speaking about the county’s disaster preparedness will be Roger Serra, director of the county’s Department of Emergency Management; Dr. M. Ward Hinds, director of the Snohomish Health District; and Snohomish County Sheriff Rick Bart. The meeting, which is open to the public, will be at 11 a.m. at the Everett Elks Lodge, 2711 Rucker Ave.
You can call Herald Writer Susanna Ray at 360-586-3803 or send e-mail to ray@heraldnet.com.
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