2010 county budget cuts services, 311 jobs

While King County prepares to shut its animal shelters in Kent and Bellevue, looks for someone else to maintain its last urban parks and withdraws support from dozens of social-service agencies, some county officials are happy to see only modest cuts in their budgets.

In a recession like this one, Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg said Thursday, "flat is the new growth. If that's so, I'm happy with the flat budget that's been presented for my budget."

Satterberg and Sheriff Sue Rahr, who lost dozens of prosecutors and sheriff's deputies last year, joined the presiding judges of Superior and District courts at a news conference to say they are pleased to be losing only 1 percent of their spending power in the face of a $56 million shortfall in the general fund.

Rahr said she will have to cut some jobs again this year, but she doesn't yet know how many.

Overall, more than 300 county positions will be eliminated.

The Metropolitan King County Council's Budget and Fiscal Management Committee voted 9-0 Thursday to approve a $5 billion county budget that includes the $627 million general fund, plus public health, transit and sewage treatment. The full council — with the same nine members — will take its final vote on the 2010 budget Monday.

At least one program will be expanded next year while others are ending. The county's Mental Health Court in Seattle, which diverts selected mentally ill offenders from jail if they follow court-ordered treatment programs, will begin operating in courtrooms on the Eastside and in the south county.

The court's expansion is funded by a sales-tax increase that went into effect last year to provide services to people with mental illness or addictions. Proceeds from the tax are maintaining a number of services that otherwise would have been cut.

But with a cumulative budget shortfall of more than $140 million expected in 2011 and 2012, officials warned the county's financial problems aren't over.

"Although I don't want to rain on the parade, the court is very concerned about the future beyond 2010 and 2011," Superior Court Presiding Judge Bruce Hilyer said. If the county doesn't find new revenues, he said, the courts won't be able to do the tasks the state Constitution requires them to do.

Here are some budget highlights:

• The council added $1.4 million to County Executive Kurt Triplett's proposed budget to maintain counseling and legal services for victims of domestic abuse and sexual assault.

• County-operated animal shelters will close by the end of January, with nonprofit agencies taking up the slack. Animal-control officers will stop serving suburban cities by the end of June unless those cities pay the full cost of services.

• Metro bus service will be maintained by shifting taxes from the county ferry district to Metro transit, raising fares and making operations more efficient.

• The County Council will trim its spending by 13 percent, the county executive by 10 percent.

Acting Budget Director Beth Goldberg said she was pleased with the budget, which largely followed Triplett's recommendations. The budget maintains a $15 million rainy-day fund and an additional reserve that totals 6 percent of the budget.

But the council will draw down total reserves more than Triplett recommended, and that means the budget problems in 2011 and 2012 will become larger, Goldberg said.

Balancing the budget was complicated by labor unions' refusal to agree to 10 days of unpaid furloughs for a second straight year. Because most county workers — including sheriff's deputies, corrections officers and bus drivers, were exempt from furloughs — it meant a minority of employees were "carrying the weight" for the majority, said Dustin Frederick, co-chair of the King County Coalition of Labor Unions.

"That's an essential inequity. There's no way you can convince people that's good or fair," Frederick said.

Triplett proposed that nonunion workers take furloughs next year, but County Council members rejected that as unfair, Budget Chairman Larry Gossett said.

Gossett said 311 full-time jobs will be eliminated, a number he said was 60 more than Triplett's budget would have cut.

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