News
"The Piggy Bank is Broken": Last Night's County Budget Hearing
"There are no dollars in this budget to support human services," said King County Council staff member Polly St. John last night, starting off the King County Council's first public hearing on the budget cuts announced Monday. "The piggy bank is broken."
Still, the line of people waiting to plead for human services filled up King County Council chambers, where the council's budget committee met under a sign that read "2011 King County Budget—balancing the budget, sharing the pain." Representatives of county-funded nonprofits and agencies, like Mary Kay Bowman of Food Lifeline, a King County-funded food bank, pleaded for more money from the budget, which is facing a shortfall of $60 million for 2011.
"Cutting human services cannot be the only answer," said Bowman. "We're talking about food; we're talking about a basic human need. These people will miss opportunities to work, and right now they're not particularly adding to the budget deficit. Please, find another solution."
KC Executive Dow Constantine's initial budget for 2011 completely eliminates human services from the general fund, cutting child abuse and domestic violence services and eliminating staff and attorneys for the court appointed special advocate (CASA) program, which places volunteer advocates with children who have been abused.
Mothers cradling their babies gathered around the microphone for a program called Healthy Start, founded on a grant from King County, that provides support for young mothers with low incomes. ("I was seventeen, and didn't understand the responsibilities of being a mom. A home visitor came to my house every month. She helped me understand what my baby was going through," testified one woman among about seven who stood at the podium.)
Other groups, in pleading their case, promised to be responsible should their funding be restored. "We will step up without asking for more," said a woman who was arguing for the King County law library, which provides information resources to officials and citizens. "We will pick up the slack."
For a dire budget hearing, the tenor remained surprisingly even—the groups pleading for human services were particularly well organized and informed (aside from a woman from the Freedom Socialist Party who recommended the Council find the appropriate budget cuts "on Wall Street").
But the most organized were a group of 10 public defenders, who were organized under the SEIU Local 925 and argued as vociferously as any of other group that they were being unfairly targeted by the budget (the Office of the Public Defender, which contracts with local public defense firms, is part of the county human services department, rather than the criminal justice department). They took to the podium wearing SEIU buttons and were accompanied by a rep from the public service union.
"It is not enough to pare equally from the prosecutor's office and the public defenders' office," said Micheline Murphy, a public defender who argued that the prosecutors' office should bear the brunt of the cuts. "Please keep that in mind."
The council members sat silent and still throughout the meeting, jotting down notes and listening intently to the speakers. Only Jan Drago and Larry Gossett were absent from the meeting (Gossett is a member of the budget and fiscal management committee, Drago is not).
After the meeting, Republican council member Kathy Lambert told me she's supportive of Constantine's budget but concerned about funding resources for the county. She said she's frustrated by the one percent cap on property taxes imposed by the state. Lambert, like fellow Republican council member Reagan Dunn, opposes Constantine's proposal for a new 0.2 percent sales tax, saying she would prefer to cut money the county will use to acquire new parks.
"We need to look at other accounts where we are losing money," Lambert said. "Lots of parks people were angry that we weren't going to be buying parks for a few years."
"People don't like to think that they are not the top priority," Lambert said.
Still, the line of people waiting to plead for human services filled up King County Council chambers, where the council's budget committee met under a sign that read "2011 King County Budget—balancing the budget, sharing the pain." Representatives of county-funded nonprofits and agencies, like Mary Kay Bowman of Food Lifeline, a King County-funded food bank, pleaded for more money from the budget, which is facing a shortfall of $60 million for 2011.
"Cutting human services cannot be the only answer," said Bowman. "We're talking about food; we're talking about a basic human need. These people will miss opportunities to work, and right now they're not particularly adding to the budget deficit. Please, find another solution."
KC Executive Dow Constantine's initial budget for 2011 completely eliminates human services from the general fund, cutting child abuse and domestic violence services and eliminating staff and attorneys for the court appointed special advocate (CASA) program, which places volunteer advocates with children who have been abused.
Mothers cradling their babies gathered around the microphone for a program called Healthy Start, founded on a grant from King County, that provides support for young mothers with low incomes. ("I was seventeen, and didn't understand the responsibilities of being a mom. A home visitor came to my house every month. She helped me understand what my baby was going through," testified one woman among about seven who stood at the podium.)
Other groups, in pleading their case, promised to be responsible should their funding be restored. "We will step up without asking for more," said a woman who was arguing for the King County law library, which provides information resources to officials and citizens. "We will pick up the slack."
For a dire budget hearing, the tenor remained surprisingly even—the groups pleading for human services were particularly well organized and informed (aside from a woman from the Freedom Socialist Party who recommended the Council find the appropriate budget cuts "on Wall Street").
But the most organized were a group of 10 public defenders, who were organized under the SEIU Local 925 and argued as vociferously as any of other group that they were being unfairly targeted by the budget (the Office of the Public Defender, which contracts with local public defense firms, is part of the county human services department, rather than the criminal justice department). They took to the podium wearing SEIU buttons and were accompanied by a rep from the public service union.
"It is not enough to pare equally from the prosecutor's office and the public defenders' office," said Micheline Murphy, a public defender who argued that the prosecutors' office should bear the brunt of the cuts. "Please keep that in mind."
The council members sat silent and still throughout the meeting, jotting down notes and listening intently to the speakers. Only Jan Drago and Larry Gossett were absent from the meeting (Gossett is a member of the budget and fiscal management committee, Drago is not).
After the meeting, Republican council member Kathy Lambert told me she's supportive of Constantine's budget but concerned about funding resources for the county. She said she's frustrated by the one percent cap on property taxes imposed by the state. Lambert, like fellow Republican council member Reagan Dunn, opposes Constantine's proposal for a new 0.2 percent sales tax, saying she would prefer to cut money the county will use to acquire new parks.
"We need to look at other accounts where we are losing money," Lambert said. "Lots of parks people were angry that we weren't going to be buying parks for a few years."
"People don't like to think that they are not the top priority," Lambert said.
