County budget cuts are unacceptable

Written by:

Sue Rahr, King County Sheriff

Dan Satterberg, King County Prosecutor

Bruce Hilyer, Presiding Judge, King County Superior Court

Barbara Linde, Presiding Judge, King County District Court

Several months ago, the district and superior courts, the Prosecutor’s Office and the Sheriff’s Office were told to expect an 8.6 percent budget cut for 2009. A few weeks later, this budget reduction was raised to 11.4 percent.

One week ago, without any prior discussion or consultation, King County Executive Ron Sims notified all King County employees via e-mail that his budget was still $15 million out of balance. Sims now proposes to make up this shortfall in two ways, neither of which is acceptable.

Union employees covered under collective bargaining contracts have the right to receive a 5.5 percent cost of living (COLA) increase, and now, for the first time in recent history, non-union employees will be treated differently and will get only a 3 percent COLA and receive no merit pay or step increases. In the past both union and non-union employees were treated the same.

Executive Sims’ proposal turns long-standing county labor policy on its head. His proposed budget now pits one group of employees against another, which is regrettable, unfortunate and unfair.

The second way the Executive proposes to fund the budget deficit is also unacceptable. Under the County Charter, the County Executive negotiates the wage portion of all union contracts. He has negotiated COLA increases which equal 5.5 percent for 2009.

Given the commitment in labor contract that Executive Sims negotiated and signed, we now learn he plans to fund those same COLA increases at only 3 percent.

While he hopes that he can recover this differential in some way, the employees covered under those contracts are not required to give any portion of their wages back to King County. So, at the end of the day, the Executive’s proposal to not provide sufficient funds to honor the labor contracts he negotiated results in an additional 11th-hour reduction to each of our budgets.

Since the Executive negotiated these contracts and obligated King County to pay the set amounts, including COLA, we do not believe his budget is a “balanced budget.”

In short:

• Criminal justice agencies are already taking an 11.4 percent budget cut in 2009;

• Union employees are now pitted against non-union employees because of the fundamental unfairness in Executive Sims’ proposal;

• Executive Sims has provided insufficient funds to honor the labor agreements that his office negotiated, thereby resulting in an additional hidden cut to the budget of each criminal-justice agency.