| For
the past two months, the Metropolitan King County Council has been engaging
citizens in an interactive
process to take a big-picture look at the way county government
prioritizes public services and spends tax dollars. Results from this
citizen outreach will help set the priorities guiding King County in
writing of the 2008 county budget.
The findings of this Citizen Budget Priorities initiative
will be released at a special evening King County Council Town
Hall meeting on the evening of Monday, April 16.
The Town Hall meeting will be held at the Microsoft
Corporation Conference Center, Building 33, Hood Room, 16070 NE 36th
Way, Redmond. The public is invited to meet face-to-face
with King County Councilmembers at an informal reception starting
at 6:00 p.m. The Town Hall will begin at 6:30
p.m.
Throughout February and March, the Council conducted
five workshops in Burien, Northgate, Redmond, Black Diamond, and the
Yesler neighborhood of Seattle. A total of 232 county residents were
drawn from a cross-section of geography, income, age, and race to
ensure statistical validity. Participants were polled using wireless
keypads to anonymously record their priorities for county spending.
Two other public forums allowed all citizens to weigh in on their
budget priorities.
The workshops and forums were conducted by Stuart
Elway of Elway Research, Inc. He will present the final findings on
citizen budget priorities at the Town Hall meeting. The public will
have an opportunity to ask questions and provide additional public
testimony.
“The yearly budget is the single most important document through
which we as a Council express our policies for King County government,”
said Councilmember Jane
Hague, Vice-Chair of the Council's Operating
Budget Committee and host for the Town Hall. “Last fall
we established a set of 'Priorities for People' to guide our budget
deliberations. Now we are directly engaging the public to hear how
they feel their tax dollars should be spent, before we start work
on the budget.”
“Usually we seek public comment only after the County Executive
introduces his proposed budget in the fall,” said Councilmember
Julia Patterson,
Chair of the Council’s Committee
of the Whole. “This year we are establishing the priorities
of government at the start of the budget process to guide public spending,
and we are making sure the priorities of the people are heard loud and
clear. This Town Hall is an extension of that commitment.”
“We
have taken a scientific approach to gathering the data that is part
of this Town Hall,” said Councilmember Bob
Ferguson, Chair of the Operating Budget Committee. “King
County has a $4 billion annual budget, and we need to make sure we
have the priorities of the people clearly in mind as we write the
annual plan for spending that money.”
By April
30, the Council will gather all the citizen comment and transmit a
set of adopted budget priorities to guide the County Executive in
preparation of his 2008 budget proposal, and to provide citizen-based
policy direction and priorities to the Council for its 2008 budget
deliberations and beyond.
The Council
last fall adopted a set of “Priorities
for People” to guide development of the 2007 King County
Budget, which totaled $3.86 billion.
Town
Hall Meetings are part of Councilmembers’ initiative to “get
out of the courthouse” and into the communities they serve,
in order to enhance local representation on regional issues. In 2007
the Council has held Town Hall meetings in West Seattle to examine
the impact of this winter’s major storms and our region’s
emergency preparedness, and in Renton to discuss the proposed regional
“Roads and Transit” transportation plan. Each Town Hall
is a special meeting of the Council’s Committee-of-the-Whole,
the only standing committee on which all nine members serve. It considers
legislation and policy issues of interest to the entire Council.
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