King County's budget passes, but more cuts are ahead next year as shortfalls are expected to grow

The Metropolitan King County Council on Monday unanimously passed a scaled-back $4.9 billion budget for 2009 amid questions over how it will maintain programs that weren't cut and how it will balance budgets for 2010 and 2011, when shortfalls are expected to grow.

County Council members, the prosecutor, judges and the sheriff said Monday they will work with County Executive Ron Sims in asking the Legislature for help in coping with the county's biggest-ever budget crisis.

The council's budget chair, Larry Phillips, D-Seattle, said the county won't ask for a handout in Olympia, but rather the county will seek loosened restrictions on how it can spend money or for new taxing authority.

The 2009 budget cuts $93 million from the amount needed to maintain services in this year's $670 million general fund.

To make ends meet, services from police investigations to senior centers will be reduced, most county offices will shut down for 10 days next year, and $8 million for public-health and other programs have been placed in a "lifeboat" that will be kept afloat only through June unless the Legislature provides some relief.

With budget shortfalls of $40 million forecast in 2010 and $62 million in 2011, several officials said they can't imagine two more rounds of budget cuts on top of the 2009 reductions.

"We can't do this next year," said Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg, who has eliminated the jobs of 27 attorneys and other staffers.

Sheriff Sue Rahr said her department's response to 911 calls will have to be curtailed in 2010 if she is forced to make more cuts after disbanding or downsizing several investigative units.

Superior Court Presiding Judge Bruce Hilyer said if the courts take further cuts, "The criminal-justice system is going to look like a train wreck."

Members of the council budget-leadership team said the Legislature could help the county maintain existing services for persons with addictions or mental illness by allowing the county to use a recently enacted sales tax to pay for existing services, not just new or enhanced services.

Another possible form of relief, they said, would be to allow the county to collect a utility tax in unincorporated areas to maintain police protection and other services there — a taxing authority cities have but counties don't.

Councilmember Reagan Dunn, R-Maple Valley, said he opposes new taxes.

"The county needs to learn to do more with less, and raising taxes isn't the answer in a down economy," he said.

Councilmember Jane Hague, R-Bellevue, said she thought a majority of council members would support what she called a "hybrid" tax — one that would tax utility use only in urbanized areas identified by neighboring cities as places they want to annex.

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