“Just in the last month, 3,200 soldiers in the Washington National Guard’s 81st Brigade Combat Team came home from Iraq,” said Enumclaw Mayor John Wise, a member of the Regional Policy Committee. “We must act now. We must do more to meet our obligation to the veterans and their families who need our help.”

The bipartisan resolution by the Regional Policy Committee advocates a levy to provide services to veterans and their families that would be taxed at a rate of 4.1 cents per thousand dollars of assessed property value. The median household in King County would pay $10.82 to support the levy, with roughly 40 percent of homeowners paying less than $10.The levy revenue for 2006 is estimated at $10.7 million.

Since October 2004, the Regional Policy Committee has examined veterans funding in King County, forming a Veterans Sub-Committee in January 2005. The Veterans Sub-Committee is comprised of John Wise, Mayor of Enumclaw, Seattle City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen, and King County Councilmember Bob Ferguson, Chair of the Regional Policy Committee. With today’s vote, the Veterans Sub-Committee is now directed by the Regional Policy Committee to draft legislation to submit to the County Council detailing the ballot measure to increase the County property tax to assist veterans and their families.

“There are currently more than 180,000 veterans living in King County, and 1,600 of these veterans are homeless,” said Committee member and Newcastle City Councilmember Sonny Putter. “The levy will ensure our returning troops and their families receive the support they deserve.”

“Our service men and women need our support,” said Ferguson. “Many returning veterans will need our help with housing assistance, trauma and mental health counseling, and emergency financial assistance for food, transportation, and medical care. Our veterans and their families earned and deserve our support.”

“Military veterans represent a disproportionately large portion of our homeless population in King County,” said Councilmember David Irons. “Our society has been failing these modern-day heroes, and now it is time to contribute our share to assist veterans in serving in a new capacity as productive members of our community.”

“Serving our veterans who have sacrificed for our country is important. The current tax to fund veteran services is less than one cent per $1,000 of assessed value. This is less than the surrounding counties and does not generate enough revenue to fund veterans’ needs,” said Councilmember Kathy Lambert. “Many current veteran services are geared towards men. Today, we have many women veterans, and we need to establish some services directed toward women’s needs. To meet the needs of all veterans and those who are currently returning home who have sacrificed for our freedom, it is time we adjust the funding formula.”

The other committee members who voted in support of the proposed levy were County Councilmember Julia Patterson and Auburn Mayor Pete Lewis.

The proposed levy would support programs including:

• Post-traumatic stress disorder counseling: provides double the hours for trauma counseling
• Veteran employment assistance: provides job retraining, skill development, and job placement support
• Domestic violence counseling: creates counseling services for veterans and their families
• Outreach and referral: provides a one-stop support program
• Veterans incarcerated program: provides treatment to prevent incarcerated veterans from re-offending
• Housing assistance: provides transitional housing for chronically homeless veterans
• Homelessness prevention for veterans: provides emergency financial assistance to prevent homelessness
• Mental health counseling: provides specialized care for addiction and mental health treatment for veterans

The Regional Policy Committee is a bipartisan committee of elected officials from King County, Seattle, and the suburban cities. It reviews and recommends regional policies and plans, other than transit and water quality plans, that are within the subject matter area approved through a work program for the committee.