King County Metropolitan Council cuts staff to help fund human services

King County human-services programs, kept alive in a budget "lifeboat" for the first half of this year, will get $1.5 million for the rest of the year, the Metropolitan King County Council decided Monday.

In a unanimous vote, the County Council decided to cut positions from its own staff and from the executive branch to preserve what it considered the most critical human services — programs that deal with homelessness, unemployment, domestic violence and sexual assault. The funding also includes money for state-mandated services.

However, the programs in question will have to operate with 35 percent less money than County Executive Kurt Triplett had requested.

All funding for the $8 million worth of programs had been slated to expire June 30, but that was extended while the County Council decided which of them to keep afloat. The council had hoped for relief from the Legislature, but no money materialized except for some help for homeless services.

To spread the pain as evenly as possible, the council stripped its own budget of $875,000 and took $900,000 from the budget of the executive branch, roughly a third of which will go to support the programs in question.

About $840,000 intended for public-health services will not be voted on until after the Budget and Fiscal Management Committee meets next week, said Frank Abe, public-information officer for the County Council. That funding would go toward programs that pay for nurses to visit child-care centers and that help prevent the spread of infectious diseases, among others.

The council's decision came after a public hearing during which about 15 people urged funding be continued for the health- and human-services programs.

Approaching the podium with a cane, 55-year-old Donna Steensland told the council she wound up homeless after a car accident that broke four of her ribs and damaged nerves in her left leg. After the accident, she got divorced, and her car was stolen.

Abandoned by everyone except her son, Steensland figured she was helpless until she found the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA), one of the services whose county funding was in jeopardy. The YWCA provided her with transitional housing, she said.

"They saved my life," she said. "There's so many resources out there, but if these fundings get cut, there's going to be so many people ... that aren't going to have any place to turn to."

Councilmember Reagan Dunn compared Monday's decision to providing a "lifejacket" for human services, saying the term "lifeboat" isn't quite accurate because although some programs will be kept afloat, there will still be big funding reductions.

Before the vote, the total 2009 county funding for human services was about $13.9 million, down from almost $21 million last year.

In response to the continuing problems funding health- and human-services programs, Councilmember Julia Patterson called for a fall ballot measure that would double or triple the amount collected under the county's Veterans and Human Services Levy.

Renewal of the levy is scheduled to be put before voters in 2011.

Patterson's proposal, if approved, would for the first time provide a "significant, dependable long-term funding source for public health and human services that's outside the battle of the general fund," Patterson said. Her proposal would bring in $30 million to $45 million a year, she said.

Although Patterson acknowledged that many may oppose a tax increase, she said the public deserves to be consulted because of the size of the recent budget cuts.

Jean Guerrero: 206-464-2311 or jguerrero@seattletimes.com