July, 2008: King County Budget Shortfalls Could Affect Lake Forest Park
From the Computer of Mayor Dave
King county is experiencing significant revenue shortfalls, now and into the foreseeable future. Over 75% of the King County Budget is for police, jails, the prosecuting attorney, superior and district courts. King County is facing a $70 million budget shortfall.
King County and the City as well are facing the impact of the fact that revenue has not kept pace with inflation. King County faces a structural financial gap. Expenses are running ahead of revenues. The County is responding by implementing across–theY– board budget cuts.
One of the results of the budget cuts is that it is likely to include pushing cases down to our Municipal Court. King County Prosecuting Attorney‘s office may decide to charge criminals with a gross misdemeanor instead of a felony. Since gross misdemeanors are heard in our court system, then we will have increasing court costs and increasing jail costs.
In the next several months we will be preparing our 2009-2010 budget. The City Council and City staff will be examining the impact of these actions on the City budget. The City will be facing some of the same revenue impacts from the capped property tax revenues as the County. ln addition, our projections show a reduction in sales taxes and a reduction of the real estate excise taxes due to the decreased sales of homes.