North King News

King County's proposed biennial budget includes anti-racism efforts, housing efforts for homeless, community engagement and criminal legal system transformation, according to a county-issued news release.

King County Executive Dow Constantine said the $12.4 billion budget includes the loss of 450 county positions.

“This year, 2020, will surely be remembered as one of the most pivotal of our lifetimes," Constantine said in the news release. "How we act, what we do, the choices we make, the commitments we fulfill, will define us – not only now, but to generations to come,” he said. “In the budget I present today, I have laid out bold policies that reflect our common values, and hold us to the standards of Dr. Martin Luther King, who said: ‘The time is always right to do the right thing.'"

Constantine said the county is putting money where its values are. 

The budget includes funding for homeless individuals, allows for an investment of $6.2 million in restorative community pathways and $600,000 for response in gun violence in the region. It also includes divesting millions from limits on jail population and marijuana tax revenues, according to the news release.

The new funding for housing will help about 2,000 people have homes and allows the county to take advantage of the current real estate market to purchase distressed nursing homes, hotels and motels, along with other buildings, to turn into housing, the news media reported.