County shortfall to trigger up to 255 layoff notices

Layoff notices will be sent Tuesday to as many as 255 King County employees in response to a $93 million shortfall in next year's general fund.

County Executive Ron Sims, delivering a somber budget address to the Metropolitan King County Council today, said 390 out of about 14,000 county jobs have been eliminated or will be eliminated by the end of this year.

Those job cuts don't count some court positions or sheriff's deputies, Budget Director Bob Cowan said. Sheriff Sue Rahr said she may have to eliminate 70 jobs — most of them deputies — at the end of the year.

Sims said this $644 million general-fund budget was the most difficult he has ever prepared, and that "critical county services are on life support."

To avoid "unconscionable cuts to public health or immoral cuts to health services" — or elimination of acclaimed drug and mental-health courts — Sims proposed spending $10.5 million of reserves to put some endangered programs in "a lifeboat" for six months while the county asks the Legislature and Gov. Christine Gregoire to give it more spending flexibility.

Without help from Olympia, 135 more jobs will be eliminated June 30, according to the county budget office.

The County Council will approve a final budget next month.

Part of Sims' budget plan — asking labor unions to make pay concessions they don't have to make — drew a quick rebuke from Rahr, Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg, Superior Court Presiding Judge Bruce Hilyer and District Court Presiding Judge Barbara Linde. Those elected officials issued a joint statement that questioned whether unions and the Legislature would go along with Sims, and concluded that "we do not believe his budget is a 'balanced budget.' "

County Councilmember Larry Phillips, who will chair the council's budget review, said Sims' wage-saving plan and lifeboat strategy are "hopes and dreams" that may not materialize.

Sims said his budget is balanced because it identifies other spending cuts that would be made if some of those savings aren't possible.

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