SEATTLE – The King County Council passed a $5 billion budget Monday, but it is coming at the cost of some 300 county workers.
There will be no cuts to Metro Transit bus service. The budget maintains service for two more years, instead of the nine percent cut that was proposed earlier. Bus fares will go up a quarter next year, and another quarter in 2011.
The budget also reinstates hundreds of thousands of dollars for rape victims and homeless women.
Instead of big cuts to the sheriff's office and the courts, the King County Council will cut the criminal justice system by only one percent.
And, the county maintains its $15 million rainy day fund.
But, in order to balance the budget without new taxes, the county will cut more than 300 jobs, $4.5 million from public health, $1.5 million in tech projects and $3 million in animal services.
Some human services will also lose funding.
"I think the biggest loser is the low income people who rely on human service programs that we were not able to restore," said King County Council member Larry Gossett.
Thirty-nine county parks, scheduled to be closed, will be saved. They'll remain open next year, but the council still hasn't figured out how to pay for that.
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