This guest Slog post is by King County Executive Dow Constantine.
King County government provides a lot of the basic services that make life work for all two million people—living in 39 cities and the unincorporated communities—of the nation’s 14th largest county. Among the most endangered of county infrastructure, in this third year of massive, recession-induced budget cuts, is the justice system.
A woefully inadequate state tax system, state initiatives that limit the taxing abilities of local governments, and the collapse in retail sales and new construction, has contributed to $140 million in general fund deficits for 2009-2010. With nearly every discretionary service slashed to the bone or eliminated entirely, the $60 million in additional cuts we face for 2011 threaten the core purposes for which we have established County government: criminal and civil courts, prosecutors and public defenders, corrections and smart alternatives to jail, patrol officers and detectives to solve crimes, and protections for victims of sexual assault and domestic violence.
To reduce the damage from these cuts, King County has placed Proposition 1 on the November ballot. Prop 1 is a temporary 0.2 percent sales tax (two pennies on a $10 purchase) that will stop the worst—but by no means all—of the cuts to crime victims and the justice system over the next three years. This is the only viable option available to struggling counties under state law. It won’t save other programs being cut, nor will it restore what’s been cut in the past. But, along with the massive reform effort we have launched, and with the active partnership of thousands of employees who are voluntarily giving up their cost-of-living raises and helping us find real efficiencies, Prop 1 can stop the bleeding. Without Prop 1, we face permanently degraded justice.
Why should you care? We have made great progress in our county, including Seattle, over the past decade—in focusing on the root causes of crime and other social ills, rather than relying only on the very expensive warehousing of more and more people. Programs like family court, community policing with an emphasis on safe neighborhoods and crime prevention, help for domestic violence and sexual assault victims—all of these reflect our values and protect our communities. All of these, and support systems for others like drug and mental health court services, are at risk without Proposition 1. And 40 percent of the money raised by Prop 1 goes to cities also struggling to deliver basic services—in Seattle this means over $22 million over the next two years to help meet complex and diverse public safety and human service needs.
It is not acceptable to let those who choose to commit crimes get away with hurting others. It is not acceptable to abandon crime victims to fend for themselves. It is not acceptable to discard those who end up in jail because of a treatable mental illness or addiction. We deserve a community with safety for everyone, with justice for everyone, and not just for those who can afford it. We can’t have that if we continue to erode the foundations of our most basic civic institutions. I have to believe we are better than that.
I urge you to support Proposition 1 when your ballot arrives in the mail.
(The voters guide statement on Prop 1 is here. )
Will do, babe. Rock on.
I agree completely that we have “a woefully inadequate state tax system,” but voting to make it worse by increasing one of the most regressive tax systems in the United States is a short-sighted solution.
Of course it’s short-sighted. It’s a TEMPORARY FIX. Isn’t that the point?
Dow, I’m all in favor of paying the additional tax for a fair justice system – but what about reform of the Sheriff’s department? – it’s riddled with overpaid THUGS who get overtime to harass and intimidate (and sometimes physically harm) the people of King County – it seems the only way to fix that situation, given the union, etc. is just to close the department and start over – and while I know that’s not realistic I do have to say I’m reluctant to support ANYTHING that funds the that department, it’s an abomination.
Sorry Dow, if there is any part of County government that should be cut its criminal justice. Stop throwing people in jail for drug possession. Stop making Seattle subsidize cops for unincorporated areas. Make cities pay their fair share for contracting with the County for police.
I’d be a yes if this was for transit or human services, but criminal justice most of which benefits places other than Seattle. Nope.
@4 That too. They should at least be taking a pay freeze like the rest of county workers.
#3 – We save public services that help the county’s poor, by increasing taxes and creating even more poor people in need of those services. That strikes me as a net-loss proposition.
The budget issue has no easy solution. We need people to think hard about priorities. Check out communityforums.org, it’s a King County program where you can tell the King County council how you want to address the budget problem in detail.
giffy’s right.
tell the sheriff to stop wasting money on overtime instead of hiring perm staff and stop wasting tax dollars on drug busts in federal park lands. it’s cutback city, baby. and you subsidized suburbanites have had your allowance from Seattle SLASHED.
deal with it.
I can’t justify a regressive tax that goes straight into salary increases for a a special class of employees apparently unwilling to compromise pay increases in a depression. That and, as a Seattlite, I don’t like subsidizing rural area’s law enforcement.
i know you have no other option, but not this time, dow. no more sales tax increases, even “temporary” ones. you won’t scare me with the public safety bugbear – the sheriff’s dept is too large, too aggressive, and to militarized for me to buy the argument.
at a certain point, the king co. council and the state legislature must stop kicking the can down the road. reforming/ending the initiative process and stopping eyman’s mischief would be a good 1st step.
@2 & @7
It is regressive, but 2 pennies on every $10 isn’t going to send anyone over the line into poverty. On the other hand, our friends and neighbors already living in poverty are those most likely to need the services that will be cut if Prop 1 fails.
Although I am skeptical of the sheriff’s department, @7 is the victim of seriously bad math. A .002 sales tax increase will not move anyone from self sufficiency to poverty. This is the same ridiculous fantasy math that republicans use when they say that tax cuts increase net revenue to the government.
jinx
12 King county has no control over the initiative process. It just gets painted into ugly corners by it
@16: yes, i was referring to (attemping to) the state there. i don’t think i’m that clear on what the king co council does, anyway – it has republicans on it so i don’t want to know.
Come back to us when you cut overtime and excess top level salaries at the sheriff’s office and stop using our tax dollars for MJ busts.
And fully fund the courts. Then we’ll vote for it, but not until then.
You decided to play hardball and push the anti-tax thing – this is what happens when you do, Seattle-subsidized suburban Republicants.
ENJOY.
FUUUUUUUUUUUCK ok since I agree with what Will in Seattle said I am sorry to announce that I have to kill myself in real life after this post.
Anyway, those things are unacceptable. You know what else is? Assuming that throwing money at it will fix the problem.
Want to help with the tragedy of people with mental illnesses being dumped onto the streets after their 10th short stay in jail? Become a lawyer.
Apply that logic instead of bleeding the people who are trying to help the economy by being a responsible adult with money and having a steady job and paying steady taxes and blowing way too much disposable income at places consciously chosen because they are local businesses.
I would be happily voting no on this if I didn’t have to kill myself in a second.
At least we have Death with Dignity … oh, sorry, that’s Oregon.
It’s only a short drive.
This is a tough sell for me, because while I acknowledge the necessity of (some of) these budget items, I’m sick of being backed into this corner again and again. Since it’s primarily exurban voters that are supporting the post-Eyman fiscal meltdown, it’s only fitting that the pain of cuts be felt somewhere where those voters will be most likely to notice: Law enforcement.
I’m sorely tempted to say “let the suburbanites go through a cycle or two without law enforcement and see how they like the lifestyle their resistance to paying for services has brought them. Maybe some of them will re-think their anti-government dogma when their housing developments are in flames.”
Besides, we got cops and courts here in Seattle. Maybe they won’t push so hard for the expensive death penalty like Comrade Reichert did before he let the Green River Killer “make a deal” – a move that literally bankrupted our county and which we’ve never recovered totally from.
All well and good. But when do we put a stop to this always tacking on a little bit for this and a little bit for that. Will we be satisfied when the sales tax reaches 20%? This state needs to swallow the bitter pill and pass an income tax and not keep piling more and more regressive sales tax on its population.
The reason sales taxes in Seattle are close to 10% is that all the other times they inched the rate up by a few points, they said it was the only way to save vital programs, and temporary circumstances demanded it. It’s always been a few pennies more. But it has added up over the years hasn’t it? Washington has the most regressive taxes in the country and the poor pay highest rate in the country.
What happens after we swallow this one? What happens next budget cycle? Are you going to come back asking for another few more pennies and saying we have to pay it for the same reasons? Next time around can we finally say enough is enough?
And isn’t this what everyone said last time? I kind of think now is when we’re supposed to say enough is enough.
What is the plan to fix the regressive tax structure and end the perennial crisis in the county budget? If there was plan, I’d fall for these pleas. But I don’t think there is a plan other than repeating the same song next time.