The King County General Government Budget Advisory Task Force, appointed by Executive Ron Sims, unveiled a series of recommendations to the Executive for addressing the County’s long-term budget challenges this past week. The Task Force concluded that there is a fiscal crisis for King County general government services, and that without both fundamental restructuring of the way services are delivered and new revenues, the public will see more service cuts every year in the future.
“There is no silver bullet or easy fix for this challenge,” said Co-Chair John Warner.
The task force was appointed by Sims late last year to review the current financial structure of King County’s general fund. This fund currently pays for required regional services such as courts, public health and the County jail, as well as providing for local services, such as sheriff, to nearly 350,000 residents living outside cities but within County boundaries.
Co-Chairs Bob Wallace, an Eastside businessman and former chair of the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce, and John Warner, retired Boeing executive, led a group of 13 citizens including former governors Booth Gardner and John Spellman, two retired judges, a former labor representative, and several business people from both the for-profit and non-profit sectors, in an eight-month examination of King County’s financial situation.
The Task Force indicated that the causes for the current situation are varied. These causes include a challenging mix of mandated regional and local service obligations, an antiquated revenue structure, failure of many urban areas to annex to cities, salary and benefit costs rising faster than revenues, and a complex fragmented organizational structure with inefficient internal systems.
The members concluded that King County’s services are not sustainable under current modes of delivery and current revenues. They did acknowledge that there are no easy reductions remaining to be taken, and commended the County for its previous reductions. However, their conclusion was that needed services are threatened.
“The County’s fiscal crisis affects all residents of King County,” said Wallace. “All residents must be invested in finding solutions to this challenge.”
But Wallace and Warner said the challenge is very real.
“In the last two years, more than $90 million in cuts have been made to general government services to balance the budget,” Warner added. “There are real consequences to the tax limitation initiatives that have passed. There are no easy budget cuts left, and unless there are fundamental changes in how services are delivered, in the infrastructure, and in revenue authorities, the County will continue to need to reduce services every year to the detriment of the citizens.”
The two added that the situation is urgent, and that delaying action will make the financial situation more difficult and cuts more painful in the future. Highlights of the Task Force’s recommendations include:
• Reviewing local service delivery to unincorporated area residents. King County is the “local government” for nearly 350,000 residents living in rural and unincorporated urban King County – equivalent to the second largest city in the state. County dollars are being used to significantly subsidize these government services – dollars that would otherwise be spent to support regional services. The Task Force recommends King County launch a major effort of at most three years to encourage annexation and reduce the “urban subsidy”;
• Contracting out service delivery to the private sector or other governments, if County employees and programs cannot provide services most effectively and efficiently;
• Initiating a regional dialogue to rationalize delivery of specialized police services: there are currently 80 specialized police units operated by the County and eight cities;
• Encouraging the County’s judges, elected prosecutor, and elected sheriff to proactively identify ways to become more efficient and control costs in the provision of law, safety and justice programs: over 70 percent of the County’s current expense fund dollars are spent in support of law, safety and justice functions;
• Seeking a variety of revenue enhancements from the state, ranging from the ability to impose a utility tax in urban unincorporated areas on the same basis as currently imposed by cities, to allowing the County more flexibility in setting fees, to providing more direct state support for County programs. Washington State currently ranks 49th in the nation in providing financial support to trial courts;
• Simplifying, unifying and streamlining management practices;
• Providing greater incentives to employees to find efficiencies in operations and enhancing efforts to manager for performance;
• Seeking full cost recovery on contract services. The County currently has dozens of contracts with cities to provide an array of services from local police, to courts, to road maintenance;
• Making budget decisions consistent with the County’s growth management vision, promoting annexation and reflecting a lower level of service in rural areas than in urban areas;
• Making budget issues more understandable to the public, more clearly reflecting the County’s distinct roles as a regional and local service provider; and
• Increasing investment in central systems technology.
Sims said he will thoroughly review the recommendations as King County prepares its 2004 budget.
“The members of this group took time from their very busy schedules to give King County government the wisdom of their collective experiences and expertise,” said Sims. “The County, our residents and our services will all be the better for their input.”
The task force has offered to reconvene in early 2004 to measure King County’s progress in implementing recommendations.
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