News
County Council Gets Grim Criminal-Justice Forecast
King County finance director Dwight Dively, county sheriff Sue Rahr, county prosecutor Dan Satterburg, and other county officials briefed the county council this morning on the grim outlook for their agencies under budget cuts proposed by county executive Dow Constantine.
The county faces a $60 million shortfall next year, the result of unprecedented low sales-tax revenues, reduced wealth countywide (even people with jobs have lost money as the stock market tanked and house values declined), high unemployment, and a state law that limits property tax increases to one percent a year when expenses have typically increased 6 percent annually.
"Over the past few years, we have done everything possible to delay the kind of cuts we are now facing," council president Julia Patterson said. "The reserves are spent and our delay tactics are now exhausted."
The county has, Dively said, already eliminated tens of millions of dollars in "discretionary" services like human services (down from $20 million to zero in this year's budget) and parks (down to $50,000), leaving law and justice programs, which now make up 77 percent of the $612 million general-fund budget, to bear the brunt of any additional cuts---9.5 percent across the board.
Countywide, Constantine's budget cuts about 500 positions (of which about 200 are filled and will result in layoffs). In the sheriff's department, that's 81 jobs; in the prosecutor's office, 33; and in superior and district courts, about 49.
Repeating her grim prognostication from earlier this year, Rahr said her department would be forced to transfer 51 experienced detectives to patrol beats, meaning they would no longer be available to investigate property crimes. "If your house is broken into, if your car is stolen, if you're a victim of identify theft, we will sen a patrol officer to your house and that'll be it," Rahr said.
"Many of those detectives have upwards of 20 years of experience. [They] are going to take that experience with them and they're going to be driving a patrol car on the graveyard shift.
"We are the first stop in a much larger system and we are going to start dismantling that system at the bottom level."
Satterberg, whose office would lose 20 deputy prosecutors under Constantine's proposal, predicted that the county could have to pay for outside attorneys to keep up with the caseload in his office, and that "less urgent" cases---cold cases and fraud charges, for example---would fall through the cracks.
Although "we're going to try to do everything we've always done," Satterburg said, "the whole system that we have is based on a credible threat that if you don't accept a plea, you might end up in trial. If we don't have enough [deputies, courtrooms, prosecutors, and public defenders, that system becomes constrained."
At King County Superior Court, presiding judge Bruce Hilyer told the council, Constantine's budget would effectively eliminate all family court services, including child abuse cases, domestic violence assessments, and staff and attorneys for the court appointed special advocate (CASA) program, which places volunteer advocates with children who have been abused.
"Once we lose the people in family court services, it'll be years before we'll be able to rebuild ... even if we ever do get the revenues back," Hillyer said. "It brings tears to my eyes to have to go to family court services and tell those people who've dedicated their lives to this work and tell them we're no logger going to provide family court services."
King County District Court would also take a hit under Constantine's budget, losing seven employees.
Patterson said she doubted the council would be able to pass the budget unanimously, as they have in the past. "It will be quite a feat for us to have a unanimous vote this year because these cuts are so severe," Patterson said.
Constantine has proposed, and the council has put on the ballot, a 0.2 percent sales-tax increase to restore some of the services his proposed budget eliminates.
The county faces a $60 million shortfall next year, the result of unprecedented low sales-tax revenues, reduced wealth countywide (even people with jobs have lost money as the stock market tanked and house values declined), high unemployment, and a state law that limits property tax increases to one percent a year when expenses have typically increased 6 percent annually.
"Over the past few years, we have done everything possible to delay the kind of cuts we are now facing," council president Julia Patterson said. "The reserves are spent and our delay tactics are now exhausted."
The county has, Dively said, already eliminated tens of millions of dollars in "discretionary" services like human services (down from $20 million to zero in this year's budget) and parks (down to $50,000), leaving law and justice programs, which now make up 77 percent of the $612 million general-fund budget, to bear the brunt of any additional cuts---9.5 percent across the board.
Countywide, Constantine's budget cuts about 500 positions (of which about 200 are filled and will result in layoffs). In the sheriff's department, that's 81 jobs; in the prosecutor's office, 33; and in superior and district courts, about 49.
Repeating her grim prognostication from earlier this year, Rahr said her department would be forced to transfer 51 experienced detectives to patrol beats, meaning they would no longer be available to investigate property crimes. "If your house is broken into, if your car is stolen, if you're a victim of identify theft, we will sen a patrol officer to your house and that'll be it," Rahr said.
"Many of those detectives have upwards of 20 years of experience. [They] are going to take that experience with them and they're going to be driving a patrol car on the graveyard shift.
"We are the first stop in a much larger system and we are going to start dismantling that system at the bottom level."
Satterberg, whose office would lose 20 deputy prosecutors under Constantine's proposal, predicted that the county could have to pay for outside attorneys to keep up with the caseload in his office, and that "less urgent" cases---cold cases and fraud charges, for example---would fall through the cracks.
Although "we're going to try to do everything we've always done," Satterburg said, "the whole system that we have is based on a credible threat that if you don't accept a plea, you might end up in trial. If we don't have enough [deputies, courtrooms, prosecutors, and public defenders, that system becomes constrained."
At King County Superior Court, presiding judge Bruce Hilyer told the council, Constantine's budget would effectively eliminate all family court services, including child abuse cases, domestic violence assessments, and staff and attorneys for the court appointed special advocate (CASA) program, which places volunteer advocates with children who have been abused.
"Once we lose the people in family court services, it'll be years before we'll be able to rebuild ... even if we ever do get the revenues back," Hillyer said. "It brings tears to my eyes to have to go to family court services and tell those people who've dedicated their lives to this work and tell them we're no logger going to provide family court services."
King County District Court would also take a hit under Constantine's budget, losing seven employees.
Patterson said she doubted the council would be able to pass the budget unanimously, as they have in the past. "It will be quite a feat for us to have a unanimous vote this year because these cuts are so severe," Patterson said.
Constantine has proposed, and the council has put on the ballot, a 0.2 percent sales-tax increase to restore some of the services his proposed budget eliminates.
