King County's $70M budget crisis: Cuts in courts, law enforcement warned

Responding to a nearly $70 million estimated budget shortfall in King County, local criminal-justice leaders said Thursday they plan to move thousands of property-crime, forgery and drug cases to lower-level courts and cut investigations of fraud, Internet crimes and cold cases.

Belt-tightening might also eliminate Drug Court, family-court services and mental-health court services, officials said at a news conference at the King County Courthouse.

In one of the moves that could most trouble taxpayers, King County Superior Court is prepared to push all property crimes under $10,000 to municipal and district courts, said King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg. Currently, all cases over $500 are classified as felonies and tried in Superior Court.

Under the new proposal, the prosecutor's office would direct law-enforcement agencies to automatically file any nonvehicle thefts under $10,000 in local-jurisdiction courts as third-degree thefts, which are gross misdemeanors punishable by up to one year in jail. Under state law, any theft over $250 can be filed as second-degree and any theft over $1,500 as first-degree, both felonies.

"After these cuts we won't be responding to the smaller crimes ... [and it] will not discourage criminals; it will only encourage them," Satterberg said.

The County Council will make final budget decisions later this year.

Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, City Attorney Tom Carr and Municipal Court Administrator Yolande Williams later said the prosecutor's proposal would unfairly pass the buck to Seattle. "King County can't solve its budget crisis by handing its criminal-justice responsibilities to Seattle," Nickels said in a statement.

Along with Sheriff Sue Rahr, Superior Court Presiding Judge Bruce Hilyer and District Court Presiding Judge Barbara Linde, Satterberg on Thursday outlined a plan that he said would preserve his office's focus on the most serious crimes against people but slice deeply into other types of cases.

"The survival of family-court services hangs in balance," said Hilyer. He said services not legally mandated will be reduced or eliminated by all county courts.

For example, he said, the Ex Parte Department, which processes 70,000 civil orders per year [including divorces, adoptions and evictions] would either have to close, or users would pay hefty fees for the services.

County Executive Ron Sims, in a news conference of his own, thanked the criminal-justice officials for pointing out the severity of the budget crisis, and said he and Satterberg have met with Gov. Christine Gregoire and legislative leaders to find a way to reduce the shortfalls that are projected through 2012.

Sims said next year's projected $68 million gap in the general fund would be particularly painful because the county cut $137 million over four years earlier in the decade.

"We have cut the easy stuff," he said. "We're talking about cutting the heart and soul of government."

Income hasn't kept pace with inflation, in large part because state law doesn't allow the county to increase its primary revenue source, the property tax, more than 1 percent a year without voter approval.

Sims' budget staff has told departments providing state-mandated services to prepare for possible 8.6 percent across-the-board cuts and has told public-health and human-services agencies to plan general-fund cuts of one-third.

Sims flatly ruled out asking voters to approve an increase in the property-tax levy.

Metropolitan King County Council Budget Chairman Larry Phillips took Sims to task for failing to deal sooner with a financial "structural gap" and for telling the council in his 2006 budget address, "My friends, the era of deficits is over!"

"It's an error to tell people the era of budget deficits is over when you know from the math that just can't be the case," said Phillips, who is considering running against fellow Democrat Sims for county executive next year.

Kathy Lambert, chairwoman of the council's Law, Justice and Human Services Committee, said the county should make criminal justice its top spending priority.

Lambert, R-Redmond, faulted Sims for spending on issues such as global warming. Sims, estimating current global-warming spending at $100,000 or less, dismissed her comments as "rhetoric." For the prosecutor's office, Sims' budget formula means a $3.7 million cut from the 2009 budget — the equivalent of 30 deputy prosecuting attorneys, Satterberg said.

The Sheriff's Office must cut $7.5 million on top of a $2.3 million cut this year, for a total loss equivalent to almost 100 deputies, Rahr said.

The county's district court, jail, public-defender and judicial-administration departments must also make the cuts. Probation supervision and adoption assistance would also be slashed under the most serious cuts, leaders said.

"We will now have two levels of public safety," Rahr said.

While deputies will be able to investigate property crimes inside the cities it contracts services for, people in unincorporated areas will not get those services, she said.

Response times would remain at current levels as long as possible, she added.

Natalie Singer: 206-464-2704 or nsinger@seattletimes.com.

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