Drafter
Clerk 07/01/2026
Title
AN ORDINANCE adopting the King County behavioral health bridge implementation plan, required by the 2026-2027 Biennial Budget Ordinance, Ordinance 20023, Section 70, Proviso P1, to govern the expenditure of proceeds from 2028 through 2034 of the behavioral health sales and use tax authorized by RCW 82.14.460 and K.C.C. 4A.500.315.
Body
STATEMENT OF FACTS:
1. In 2005, the state Legislature authorized counties to implement a one-tenth of one percent sales and use tax to support new and expanded behavioral health programs, as described in RCW 82.14.460.
2. The behavioral health sales and use tax, originally enacted in King County in 2007 through Ordinance 15949, was extended in 2016 through Ordinance 18333. Ordinance 19976, Section 2, which is codified as K.C.C. 4A.500.315, provided for the continued collection of the sales and use tax without interruption and at the same rate through January 1, 2035.
3. The tax, originally known in King County by the mental illness and drug dependency ("MIDD") name, is renamed through Ordinance XXXXX (Proposed Ordinance 2026-XXXX), the King County behavioral health bridge ("the bridge").
4. The bridge is projected to generate nearly eight hundred million dollars for behavioral health care in King County between 2028 and 2034.
5. Between 2017 and 2025, participants in relevant sales-tax-funded programs had sixty-two percent fewer engagements with publicly funded crisis services, thirty-eight percent fewer episodes of hospitalization and involuntary detention, fifty-nine percent fewer bookings into King County and municipal jails, and thirty-two percent fewer emergency department visits three years after enrollment.
6. Significant behavioral health need persists in King County, fueling a cycle of homelessness, incarceration, and hospitalization that affects too many people. For example, nearly one thousand four hundred individuals in King County are regularly cycling through County and municipal jails, which means being booked into a correctional facility located in King County four or more times per year in two of the past three years, and ninety-six percent of these individuals have a behavioral health condition or a history of interaction with publicly funded behavioral health or crisis services.
7. The bridge sales tax continues to fill critical gaps in the availability of behavioral health care in King County, including paying for behavioral health care for low-income people not eligible for Medicaid and whose services are not covered by state funding. Bridge-funded programs and services also complement and strengthen the investments of other county funding streams, such as the Crisis Care Centers Levy and Health Through Housing, by paying for services and programs that those targeted local moneys do not support.
8. The King County Behavioral Health Bridge Implementation Plan 2028-2034 invests where the need is greatest and where dollars can make the most meaningful impact. The plan seeks to break the cycle of behavioral health crises, incarceration, hospitalization, and homelessness by streamlining systems, coordinating across care settings, investing in technology, and paying for essential services that help people achieve and maintain stability. The plan promotes holistic and high-quality behavioral health care for years to come by addressing long-term workforce shortages and the youth behavioral health crisis. The plan invests strategically to improve the availability, accessibility, effectiveness, and equity of behavioral health care in King County across five interconnected strategy areas, which are: care transitions and diversion services; substance use disorder treatment, and recovery; equitable access to behavioral health care; child, youth, and young adult mental well-being; and behavioral health workforce development.
9. The 2026-2027 Biennial Budget Ordinance, Ordinance 20023, Section 70, Expenditure Restriction ER6, restricts nearly all behavioral health sales and use tax revenues in 2026 and 2027 to be expended or encumbered consistent with the processes and practices established in Ordinance 18406 and Motions 15093 and 15058. As a result, the King County Behavioral Health Bridge Implementation Plan 2028-2034 encompasses the years 2028 through 2034.
10. Ordinance 20023, Section 70, Proviso P1, states that the executive should electronically file the mental illness and drug dependency sales tax implementation plan by July 1, 2026. Consistent with Ordinance XXXXX (Proposed Ordinance 2026-XXXX), the plan called for in the proviso is renamed the King County behavioral health bridge implementation plan.
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF KING COUNTY:
SECTION 1. The King County Behavioral Health Bridge Implementation Plan 2028-2034, which is Attachment A to this ordinance, as required by the 2026-2027 Biennial Budget Ordinance, Ordinance 20023, Section 70, Proviso P1, is hereby adopted
to govern the expenditure of behavioral health sales and use tax proceeds as authorized under Ordinance 19976 and K.C.C. 4A.500.315.