Exec's home | News | Site map | E-mail 2005 Budget Address » Related information Oct. 11, 2004 Superior Court Presiding Judge Eadie. District Court Presiding Judge Harn. King County Prosecutor Maleng. King County Assessor Noble. King County Sheriff Reichert. Members of the King County Council. Mr. Chair. Ladies and Gentlemen. People of King County. I am proud to present to you my 2005 budget. Today you will hear about how far we have come and what challenges lie ahead. And I am asking each member of this council to join me in passing a budget that makes our communities safer, healthier and leads King County into an even brighter future. As we all know, King County is so much more than a government. I believe King County is the best place in the world to live and work. As I stand here today, that truth is self-evident. We are great because we are a region of forward thinkers. Those who came before us created the Mountains to Sound Greenway, the Farmland Preservation Initiative, Forward Thrust, and cleaned up Lake Washington. As a region, we have never been content to just repeat the past. We value new ideas and innovation. We are always looking ahead, pushing on. We are home to great innovators in aerospace, software, biotech and other 21st Century industries. Our citizens deserve a regional government that matches those lofty standards. And I believe they have it in King County. As King County Executive, I have the honor to oversee a government that improves the quality of our lives. We are leaders in public health, transportation services, clean air, clean water, magnificent open space, controlling sprawl, and an effective criminal justice system that protects our public. Those who make their living from the ocean have a saying: “a smooth sea never made a skillful mariner. The storms of adversity excite the skill of the voyager.” For the past four years King County has been battered by the worst economic and fiscal storm in decades. To remain afloat we have been forced to cut 135 million dollars and over 500 jobs from the General Fund. But that storm has excited our skill. Despite cuts of this magnitude we can point with pride to our legacy of remarkable accomplishments. Our strong financial management allows us to maintain a credit rating that is higher than all but 37 of the nation’s 3000 counties, and higher than 34 states including the State of Washington. Our Office of Emergency Management is nationally recognized by the 9/11 Commission and the Department of Homeland Security as an effective leader in disaster preparedness. Our outstanding Medic One system is the best in the nation at responding to major medical emergencies. Our Metro Transit system has twice been recognized as the national agency of the year and has purchased the largest articulated hybrid bus fleet in the world. Later this year, we will be one of the very few governments in the country using bio-diesel fuel in our vehicles. Our Public Health Department has been named as one of the few Advanced Preparedness Centers for responding to terrorism and health emergencies nationwide. Our tuberculosis control programs are national models as are our HIV/AIDS efforts. Our peers in the federal government now refer to us as the Center for Disease Control West. King County Elections mailed out more than half a million absentee ballots during this recent primary election, the second largest mailing in the country behind Los Angeles County. Yet we counted our ballots faster and more accurately than ever before. While many places in the country have built new jails, we chose a different path. We have reformed our juvenile justice and adult correctional systems, placed hundreds of individuals in detention alternatives and helped thousands more through employment, treatment, housing, and other support programs. The result? We did not build a third jail in King County or a second juvenile detention facility. As a matter of fact we closed five juvenile detention units. And these efforts have saved millions every year. We have the lowest incarceration rate per capita of the 25 largest governments that operate jails in the country. Crime is down. More people are getting the treatment they need, and our communities are safer. King County’s Greenbrier Heights project just won a national award for innovation in housing. It is just one of the thousands of low income and affordable housing units we have built to give our residents shelter and a new start. But we are not finished. As a founding member of the Committee to End Homelessness, King County has been asked to lead the effort to place a roof over the head of every homeless man, woman and child within the next 10 years. King County has been relentless in protecting our environment. Wise stewardship of our land and water is a core value. The Tacoma News Tribune recently dubbed us the “King of land management” and we will continue to build on that reputation. We are saving threatened salmon, the icon of the Northwest. Our leadership helped bring more than $30 million state and federal funds into King County over the past five years to protect and restore salmon habitat and keep our waters clean and cool forever. Now, with the salmon recovery plans almost complete, we must focus our attention on recovery of the entire Puget Sound. The EPA is hailing our new landfill gas-to-energy project as one of best projects in the nation, generating $400,000 annually and saving $80,000 a year by using energy generated from garbage. This fall we will complete the nation’s largest molten carbon fuel cell, powered by wastewater methane gas. This fuel cell will create cleaner air, reduce power costs, and establish a national model for other utilities. Government officials from all over the world are calling us to learn about Brightwater, our new state-of-the art sewage treatment plant. When completed Brightwater will have the most advanced technology and the most stringent odor control in the nation. Two years ago, we faced shutting down 180 county parks and sixteen pools because of the budget crisis. Now innovations and partnerships are making parks more self-sufficient, adding popular new events and building stronger relationships with users. It’s a new way of doing business, generating over $5 million dollars per year, and our citizens are the winners. Today, with the help of our cities and community organizations every one of those parks and pools is open to the public. This remarkable success story required the leadership and commitment of this County Council and I thank you. It also required our citizens to trust King County enough to pass a levy. For all of us, I again thank the voters of King County for having that faith and passing the 2003 Parks Bond. And finally, last month I signed one of the most significant forest preservation acquisitions in the nation – a 90-thousand acre working forest twice the size of Seattle, five times the size of Bellevue, and just minutes from our cities, is now preserved forever from development. The week before that we signed a deal that preserved the magnificent trees and vistas around Snoqualmie Falls, commemorating it with the wonderful statement “For all people, for all time.” Over the past 7 years we have preserved an additional 12,000 acres of key habitat, open space and resource lands, and leveraged over $20 million dollars in private contributions. These actions fortify our wall against sprawl. This is truly an irreplaceable legacy for future generations. The storms of adversity have made us better mariners, skillfully responding to the needs of the people who live here. This past summer, we had the privilege of watching another skillful Mariner. Over six exciting months Ichiro Suzuki banged out 262 hits. As the weeks went by, we came to expect the singles, the doubles, and beating out the slow roller to third. Ichiro made it look easy…almost ordinary. But it was not. It was extraordinary. Nothing like it had happened in 84 years. We might not live to see it happen again. As we review King County’s list of accomplishments, and consider many more that our employees achieve every day, it would be easy to believe that this is how the average regional government operates. That it is easy and ordinary to be innovative, hardworking and successful. But it is not ordinary. What we are doing here together is extraordinary. We are truly a world class government. Here in King County we are doing things that have never been done before. We are efficient. We are innovative. And we are exceptional. The people of this county deserve the best value for their hard-earned dollars and this list of accomplishments is just the tip of the iceberg. Sustaining that value is why this budget is so important and why we must pass it together as partners. Such success comes with the deep responsibility to continue being efficient, effective, innovative and extraordinary. We are here today to talk about how we are going to build a future worthy of our past. Today, I am presenting a $3.3 billion dollar budget to the County Council as a blueprint for healthy people, a healthy environment and healthy communities. We have produced a budget that invests in transportation, protects water quality, integrates the criminal justice system, improves public health, enhances human services, and much more. For the first time in four years, the budget does not include major cuts to services. We have stabilized the county’s financial footing. My 2005 budget makes actual reductions of less than $9 million dollars. Seventy percent of the county’s general fund budget goes to law, safety and justice services. Protecting the public is the paramount duty of this government. While some cuts to criminal justice had to be made, we protected core services as much as possible. As an example, when faced with the loss of federal grants for School Resource Officers we restored that funding. Nothing is more important than the safety of our children. My budget also lowers the cuts we projected for 2006 from $20 million to $8.7 million. And it lowers our projected cuts in 2007 from $20 million to $13.3 million. That is three years of future stability we must build upon. This success is no accident. We have reprioritized and refocused county government. Employee initiatives, business plans, and advice from the best minds in the public and private sectors on our task forces are producing savings, empowering employees and delivering better services to our citizens. We are submitting this progressive budget because our employees have sacrificed and pulled together. I wish to thank everyone who works for King County for the creative thinking, dedication and effort necessary to make this happen. You are truly the best in the world, and none of this would have been possible without you. We have not solved all our problems. Our hard work and disciplined approach have created three years of future fiscal stability. The Budget Advisory Task Force, headed by business, community leaders, and two governors has created a road map for change. And we must seize this opportunity. 2005 is a critical year for creating a more efficient criminal justice system and making smart investments in technology. We must also encourage annexations, and find a stable revenue source for human services. And we must secure transportation funding for the region. None of these efforts will succeed without the partnership of Seattle, Bellevue, and our suburban cities. In 2005 I will meet with every city in the county to strengthen our relationship with our sister governments and find ways to solve our mutual problems. My state and federal agendas will seek dollars that will flow directly into cities to encourage annexations, fund roads, and create a safety net for the most fragile among us. For if King County does not address these issues by 2008, we will plunge right back into the stormy seas of large deficits and unacceptable cuts to basic services. But I have faith that we will rise to the challenge of these issues and we will overcome them. Adversity has taught us much. And we have learned how to sail these waters. But there is a new storm front gathering on the horizon that dwarfs our other challenges and threatens to swamp King County: the skyrocketing costs of our health care system. These costs are not only battering King County, they are threatening all governments, all businesses and all families in our region. The soaring costs of health care affect every part of our lives and prevent our economy from prospering. All around this country, governments have given up hope on improving health and containing costs. They believe the challenge is too great. But King County will not concede defeat. We will accept the challenge. We will once again step forward and lead. Here is an astonishing piece of information. According to a recent study by the Rand Corporation – 41% of the healthcare we purchase in the Seattle area as employers and patients does NOT contribute to better health outcomes. I am going to say that again. 41 cents of every health care dollar we spend does NOTHING to make us healthier. The experts call this the “Defect Rate.” I call it unacceptable. Would you go to a restaurant that failed to bring you what you ordered 41% of the time? Would you fly an airline that landed in the wrong city 41% of the time? And yet every day we trust our lives to a health care system that does not make us better 41% of the time. Unless we do something to change the status quo, King County can expect a doubling of its health plan premiums within six years from $154 million to more than $300 million dollars. These same increases are happening in our schools, our cities, to small businesses, at Starbucks, at Boeing, and at Microsoft. King County’s 150 million dollar problem is a reflection of a much bigger problem that will cost our region billions every year. Now imagine the improved health and savings to our families, our government, our businesses, our region and our economy if we could solve this problem. What cause could be more worthy for a world class regional government to tackle? The major initiative in my 2005 budget is fixing the healthcare system in this region. We must lessen the impact and burden of illness on the people and businesses of King County. Impossible? No! This CAN be done. Last year, I gathered some of the best minds in the nation to help fix it. The King County Health Advisory Task Force was made up of key players from our region’s health care system: health care professional and employers as well as nationally-recognized business, labor, legal, and academic leaders known for their bold actions in the field of health care. The task force found that the health care problem in King County is directly linked to the health care crisis in our region and in our nation. The task force said that the solutions must tie our region together as well. It takes a village to heal a child. We know it can be done because the task force applauded the direction taken by King County. We know it can be done because the task force laid out the steps necessary to make people of this region healthier while saving costs. We know it can be done because every action they recommend is being done somewhere in the United States. We know it can be done because King County has already experienced success. Two years ago, we made changes to our health care plans similar to what the task force is recommending. We saved 6 million dollars in 2003. And those dramatic savings continued in 2004. I am pleased to announce that the benefits fund will rebate $9 million dollars to all King County funds, including $2.6 million dollars to the current expense fund. Even with that rebate we have set aside large reserves in 2005 for my health care initiative. The money saved from 2003 and 2004 creates a once in a lifetime opportunity to reinvest in fundamentally changing health care in this region. I urge the County Council to retain these health care reserves. It is an opportunity that must not be squandered. What the best minds in health care are telling us is surprisingly simple…we need a Consumer Reports for health care. The biggest impediment to high quality, effective health care is the lack of common information among patients, doctors, hospitals and health plans. We need a common book of reference on performance in the health care arena. Using the latest information technology, this book will allow us to measure, report, reward, and improve the quality of health care in King County. When patients, doctors, hospitals and health plans all have information at their fingertips on which treatments are most effective and who does them best, then patients will know they are getting the right care at the right time. Educated, empowered consumers will get better health care at lower costs. And that 41% defect rate will plummet. The goal is simple. Achieving it is not. The task force said that the best way to create this Consumer Reports is the formation of a regional health care partnership. Last week the County Council voted to fund my proposal to create of the Puget Sound Health Partnership. You demonstrated courage and leadership in taking that critical first step, and I applaud you. And because we at King County have led, others have followed. Today, I am pleased to be able to announce that Starbucks, Washington Mutual and the State of Washington have agreed to join King County as inaugural members of the health partnership. And I expect to make announcements about adding more partners in the near future. Philosopher Thomas Carlyle said some 150 years ago: “He who has health, has hope; and he who has hope, has everything.” Ladies and gentleman, with the collaborative work of the Puget Sound Health Partnership we will reclaim our health. We will replace the despair of the current health care crisis with hope. And four years from now I intend to stand before you and report that King County has done, once again, the extraordinary. Today’s budget proposal continues our reputation as a national leader in innovation. However, our basic responsibility will always be to make sure that every person in King County has access to the services that improve their lives. Every decision we make and every program we implement remains true to our role as the guardians of public resources. I know that together, when we pass this budget, we will once again fulfill our promise of world class services to the region. The choices we make now leave a legacy for tomorrow. With your help we will sustain an innovative and resourceful county government for the present and for the future. Thank you. » Related information Updated: Oct. 11, 2004 Executive's home | Executive's news Executive's schedule | Executive's e-mail King County | Executive | News | Services | Comments | Search Links to external sites do not constitute endorsements by King County. By visiting this and other King County web pages, you expressly agree to be bound by terms and conditions of the site. The details.