Video: King County to explore new funding streams

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SEATTLE - Looming budget cuts in King County have triggered a new call to "invest in people first."

Community leaders including Bill Gates Senior, the CEO of United Way of King County and more are demanding a bipartisan rescue of health and human service programs.

They say these services are the basic safety net for people like Deanna.

"For me, life is all about choices. And in my early 30s, I chose to use methamphetamines and it took away everything I ever worked for," Deanna said.

Now Deanna is clean. She has her life back, she says, thanks to private and public assistance from King County programs.

Deanna goes back to her own arrest to argue for not cutting county law enforcement.

"I don't know that they really know what they're in for because you would literally have some lunatics running loose," she said.

King County's $93 million budget gap forecasts a $19 million cut in public health services, from everything from vaccination programs to domestic violence shelters. They're services for King County's most vulnerable.

"The people of King County who are looking for hope and help may not find the hope and health they're looking for," said Josephine Tamayo Murray, of Catholic Community Services.

In coming days, the King County Council will explore new funding streams. Options include

a county health district with authority to tax property, plus new taxes on real estate, utilities, motor vehicles, and a bottled water and beverage fee.

Among statewide options is a dedicated sales tax on alcohol, tobacco and car rentals. Another option is eliminating a sales tax exemption on medical services, prescription drugs, or candy and gum.

In a newspaper ad, prominent private citizens and private charities warn of a coming crisis and call for a non-partisan public response to this key question: "How can this fraying safety net be saved so that our community spirit is not lost?"

Murray asks: Is there a public will - in this time of economic distress - to re-weave the tearing community safety net so that the most vulnerable people get the help they need?

The King County Council is holding a series of public meetings on the public health budget.

The next one is Tuesday, Oct. 21, at 7 p.m., at Finn Hill Junior High School in Kirkland.