Drafter
Clerk 12/17/2003
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AN ORDINANCE adopting the 2004 Annual Budget and making appropriations for the operation of county agencies and departments and capital improvements for the fiscal year beginning January 1, 2004, and ending December 31, 2004.
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BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF KING COUNTY:
SECTION 1. Findings: The council hereby makes the following findings of fact.
A. King County government is responsible for providing a variety of services to all residents of the county. These include regional services, such as public safety, criminal justice, public transportation and wastewater treatment. King County government is also responsible for providing local services to unincorporated communities, such as county sheriff protection, roads, local parks and land-use regulation. In addition to these mandated regional and local responsibilities, the county contracts with several suburban cities for services such as police protection, animal control and health and human services. To accomplish these tasks, this 2004 budget contains $3 billion in expenditures, of which over eighty percent is in dedicated funds that must be used for specific purposes. The remaining general fund expenditures - roughly $500 million - can be used for discretionary purposes, including public safety, human services and general government functions.
B. The metropolitan King County council has, over the past several years, adopted a number of long-range policies that prioritize competing needs while addressing the growing structural gap between the county's general fund revenues and expenditures. The council has closed a gap of over $100 million over the past three years, representing about twenty percent of the general fund budget. The county's general fund faces structural deficits of $15 million to $20 million annually for the foreseeable future.
C. Leadership from the council and the executive closed a gap of $24 million in this budget through a comb...
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