King County budget shortfall at $86.5 million for 2009

A sharp drop-off in sales-tax revenues and a "dramatic increase" in the cost of living in June have pushed King County's 2009 funding shortfall to $86.5 million, Budget Director Bob Cowan told the Metropolitan King County Council Monday.

The gap in the $658 million general fund — forecast at $60 million in March — has widened as inflation and turmoil in the nation's housing and financial markets have grown in recent months.

Cowan told the council his boss, County Executive Ron Sims, will propose a balanced budget in October but didn't say how he would close the gap.

In March, Cowan asked department heads to prepare 2009 budget proposals that would cut spending 8.65 to 33.3 percent below the level required to maintain current services.

Agencies providing services required by state law — such as the sheriff, courts and prosecutors — would take the lower cuts — while other departments, such as public health and community and human services, would take the deeper cuts.

One bit of good news: Cowan reported Monday that the immediate belt-tightening ordered in March has reduced the deficit expected for 2008 from $20 million to $4.8 million.

But the picture for 2009 has deteriorated significantly. Sims said Friday he may seek a bus-fare increase of more than 25 cents because of the sudden drop in sales-tax collections.

The general fund will take an even heavier blow than predicted just weeks ago, Cowan said Monday, because surging inflation means the county will have to give many of its unionized employees a 6 percent cost-of-living adjustment instead of the 2.5 percent envisioned late last year.

"In short, our nation's unprecedented economic turmoil has not been kind to the county's general-fund outlook," Cowan wrote to the council. That financial chaos, he said, "is creating uncertainty that continues to confound economic observers and forecasters."

"These ever-shifting numbers are more than troubling. I'm very concerned about the budgetary free fall that the general fund seems to be in," said County Councilmember and budget Chairman Larry Phillips, who is considering running for executive against Sims next year.

Phillips said the numbers show the need for citizens to approve a county-charter amendment this fall that would create an independent budget-forecasting office.

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