The Sable Verity

What Is Health Equity?

Health equity is a new idea for most people. It’s not hard to grasp, but it does require us to reframe the way in which health differences are usually presented and perceived. Read more »

The Buzz on “Unnatural Causes” is slowly but surely getting louder. So what is it exactly, and how does it impact you? Read more »

King County is facing a massive budget deficit for 09.  The number started around $25m, then $40, now $65 and likely soon to be $80 million dollars.  That’s right.

By Keith Ervin
Seattle Times staff reporter
Related
Archive | County budget looks dim
King County’s budget chief, saying the financial outlook has deteriorated significantly in the past month, now projects a $20 million shortfall this year and a $60 million problem next year.
Office of Management and Budget Director Bob Cowan, who last month estimated a 2009 budget problem of $45 million, has told the Metropolitan King County Council it now looks like the gap will be about one-third larger than he predicted.
Most of a $25 million reserve created to narrow the 2009 budget gap will instead be spent this year to avoid a deficit, Cowan said Tuesday.
The problem is in the general fund, the $662 million portion of the $4.9 billion county budget that comes from local taxes that aren’t earmarked for specific uses.
Cowan has told department heads that all travel expenses this year must be approved by County Executive Ron Sims’ office, a limited hiring freeze will be imposed, and budget-busting supplemental appropriations won’t be approved unless they are needed to fund a labor settlement or meet a legal requirement.
Dealing with next year’s shortfall — expected to be the biggest ever in dollars — will be more difficult.
As a “starting point” for the 2009 budget, Cowan has suggested that general-fund spending on public health and human services be cut by one-third. “Agencies in this category should not only plan for how they would take this reduction in 2009, but also how they would entirely phase out of these lines of business by the end of 2011,” Cowan told department heads in a March 31 memo.
For services required by the state, such as police, jail, courts and elections, across-the-board cuts of 8.65 percent are tentatively proposed. Cowan said the overall spending targets — and the across-the-board approach itself — may be changed as the budget is developed in coming months.
Reasons for the growing budget gap include lower interest rates, year-end revenue and spending figures from 2007, lower property-tax collections and reduced sales-tax revenues.
Cowan said the cost of fuel, employee benefits and cost-of-living adjustments are rising faster than revenues. The biggest revenue source in the general fund is the property tax, which, under state law, can’t increase more than 1 percent a year on existing buildings without a public vote.
The county’s collections of real-estate excise tax, which funds park purchases, dropped from nearly $4.5 million in the first quarter of 2007 to $2.5 million in the same period this year.

Recently King County Executive Ron Sims rolled out the county’s social justice and equity initiative.  He said in an op-ed in the local paper, in part:

 ”At this moment, here in communities as forward-thinking as Seattle and King County, the color of your skin or your home address are good predictors of whether you will have a low-birth-weight baby, die from diabetes, or your children will graduate from high school or end up in jail…”

Terms like ‘equity’ and ’social justice’ are really nice; they make people feel comfortable with themselves and their position in society.  I refer you to the wisdom of Professor Hays on the SableSeattle page of this blog to get into the guts of racism, but basically, either folks are really serious about equity and social justice and are willing to make themselves and others uncomfortable to acheive it, or they don’t.  They stay above the surface never wanting to dig deep into the issue.

It’s interesting that the County is rolling out this new plan.  The one thing that I’ve learned about King County government in general is that it has no problem leaving loose ends to be someone elses problem down the line; the longstanding gap in community health and human services funding proves that.

There’s just one problem with this new plan; it doesn’t require any new resources (yeah folks, we’re including cash in that too).  Instead, the plan calls for all levels of KC government to develop of lense of equity in decision making; “no more business as usual” is what they are saying.  Now when they are making decisions they will think more strongly about those who need but don’t get services.  That doesn’t mean they will make sure that those people actually get services.

The fact is, it is an “and and” situation: more equitable decision making and money and other resources.  You really cannot have one without the other.

If you have an illiterate 30 year old who has never worked a day in his life, you cannot just give him job training or basic education; you have to give him both.  You’ll also have to support him during his transition.

The concern is that the County- crushed by the ever-increasing weight of the CX budget, is trying to find a way to stop bleeding so much.  We have growing costs and not enough revenue sources, we have funding gaps for basic needs (which is a social justice and equity issue) across King County ranging between 40-70 million dollars each year, AND a projected 50-70 million dollar budget defecit thanks to the crummy economy and a few other issues now hitting the County all at once.

So yes, as a County we’re strapped tight; but we also still have a lot of issues that need to be addressed county wide; we can’t let local government throw nothing at these problems and expect real long term change.  Where do we go from here?  How does the County make sure it’s Equity and Social Justice Initiative isn’t just a bag of empty promised masked with rhetoric?