Even though King County Executive Ron Sims hasn't officially projected a budget surplus next year, he's already talking about what should and shouldn't be done with the windfall.

Positioning himself as a fiscal conservative while running for re-election in November, Sims proposed an ordinance yesterday that would put a priority on saving over spending. Republican County Councilman David Irons and Green Party candidate Gentry Lange are running against him.

The ordinance, which would put current practices into law, would maintain undesignated reserves of 6 to 8 percent of all expected revenue and a separate reserve of $15 million from sales taxes.

"We are on the verge of having a substantially different budget outlook than we've had in a long time," Sims said.

He declined to release any budget numbers in advance of his annual budget address to the County Council on Oct. 17.

Budget Director Bob Cowan said the county's financial situation is "not substantially different" from that of Seattle, whose mayor, Greg Nickels, projects a $55 million revenue boost next year.

As with Seattle, the projected surplus will undoubtedly spark debate among County Council members and interest groups over how best to handle the windfall.

Sims said he doesn't want to start new programs that could create "bow-wave effects" of pushing up spending for years to come.

Since 2001, the county has closed $137 million in budget shortfalls by cutting spending, giving local parks and pools to cities, adopting a voter-approved park levy and ordering the solid-waste utility to pay rent on the county landfill.

Now, after several years of depressed revenues, sales-tax, property-tax and real-estate excise-tax payments are up.

Sims said yesterday that county spending on employee health care is expected to rise only 2.4 percent this year, after going up 11 percent annually the previous four years.

He attributed the drop to an increase in employee co-payments and to an education campaign that helped employees make better health-care decisions.

Keith Ervin: 206-464-2105 or kervin@seattletimes.com