King County's $60 million budget fix

King County expects a $60-million budget shortfall in calendar year 2009. The gap must be closed in a way that does not compromise public safety and does not reach into the taxpayers' pockets for the entire $60 million.

We offer some ideas that may work.The county's financial boss, Bob Cowan, says one-third of the gap might be closed if the state required cities to annex adjacent territories such as Juanita, Eastgate, West Hill, White Center and Fairwood. These pockets were left over after the cities took the turf they wanted, including all the major shopping centers and industrial land.

Cowan says 10 percent of the gap could be bridged if the state would relax its laws that specify separate pots of funds, not including voter-created funds for parks, emergency services and the fingerprint system.

He says another 10 percent might be bridged by making government more efficient. County Executive Ron Sims suggests that regional police costs could be cut by creating a joint bomb unit, a joint SWAT team and a joint marine unit instead of duplicate units among jurisdictions.

Councilmember Bob Ferguson suggests that Public Health could spin off clinics to a nonprofit provider, and fund that provider. Councilmember Kathy Lambert suggests a wider use of contracting out.

The problem with leaning more heavily on cuts is that 71 percent of the county's budget is for police, courts and jails, which are core functions of government. There are a few discretionary things — drug court, mental-health court, juvenile programs — but they are things we want to keep. Beyond the 71 percent are other programs that are also useful, such as control of infectious diseases and several human-services programs.

Some county functions may have to be shoved onto cities — prosecution of minor thefts, for example.

Finally, there are tax increases. The county chafes under the 1-percent lid on property-tax revenues from existing construction. This page always said 1 percent was too low. A few years of it was all right, but over a long period, it is not livable.

The inflation rate would make a better lid. That change, Cowan calculates, would fill up about a quarter of the financial hole.

Many of these suggestions would require changes in state law. That would be easier than living with a $60 million local tax increase or deep cuts in public health and safety.