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| King County's budget must not overlook human services |
| The Center School | Media - In the News | |
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(The following is an editorial written by The Center School seniors Eli Miller, Julian Friend, Faye Thornburgh and Enrico Hipolito.) Dow Constantine’s budget is a marvel of efficiency. As every TV screen and newspaper cover warns of continuing economic trouble and the necessity of cuts, it is encouraging to see that human services will receive the same funding it did last year, as well as $1 million in the form of a one-time grant. However, we wish the King County Council would look beyond the status quo this fiscal year. Time and again, Health and Human Services has demonstrated that every $1 spent now in human services is a direct savings in expenditures for police, courts and emergency room care in the future. In a time when anti-government feelings mount at Westlake Center and the median income is falling in our county, wouldn’t it be heartening to see new, dedicated funding allotted for health and human service providers? For the past decade the money spent on such safety and justice areas as police, prisons and courts has been allowed to swell, taking up a disproportionate percentage of King County’s discretionary revenue (that is, the funds that are not allocated via levies or other mandated services). Currently, the categories of justice and safety account for 76 percent of the $648.1 million available. Health and human potential, the County’s health and human services program, has shriveled to only 4 percent of the budget. Why does King County insist on investing the majority of its general funds in the less efficient programs that government offers? According to this year’s budget overview, the County worked with its employees and unions to find ways to hold down health care costs, resulting in the avoidance of a projected healthcare cost increase of 12.5 percent for last year. In fact a surplus in the proposed budget will be used to pay for potential software updates. Executive Dow Constantine’s proposed budget is one of the most encouraging pieces of legislation we have seen in a long time. But so much of the status quo, structural gaps (a widening inequality between government income via sales and property tax, and expenditures) and a swelling criminal justice budget are problems that can’t wait another year. Human service programs are an investment in a safer, more peaceful, efficient future. But more importantly, the services they provide are exemplary of the best of what government does in these times of economic hardship. The $1 million grant should not be a one-off event, but a continual fund to health and human service providers. Yes, we need adequately trained and equipped police officers on patrol. We need well-maintained prisons. We need prosecutors and public defenders. But in this one, rare fiscal year when efficiency in government is being stressed, why can’t we make an investment by the allotting of a new source of stable funding to health and human services? Can’t we all agree, no matter our political leanings, that the role of government is to serve the people, the poor, and the exposed? In times of austerity, it is not the duty of our legislature to “cut and burn” or even accept what we did last year as good enough. When the line in front of the food bank stretches the block, “no cuts” is not a good enough solution. When children and minimum wage workers, the new face of the poor, sleep in cars, “no cuts” is not enough. Ultimately, the remedy to our county’s problems is in line with Dow Constantine’s vision: an investment in efficiencies, and the overdue recognition of Human Services as one of the best uses of government funds. Many of the deficit problems of our county are more related to the structural gap that our state Legislature faces every year than how the county uses its money. In the end, the King County Council cannot address the complications we face. In a best-case scenario, Human Services would be mandated and our regressive tax system amended. However, neither of those options are in the bounds of Dow Constantine’s or the County Council’s authority. But this is a good start. With just a few tweaks, this could be the best budget we’ve seen in the long line of recession-influenced government budgets. Originally printed in the Queen Anne News 12/21/2011
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The Center School Annual Report
Principal Letter for School Reports 2011