Drafter
Clerk 07/01/2026
Title
AN ORDINANCE renaming and revising the mental illness and drug dependency fund and the mental illness and drug dependency advisory committee; amending Ordinance 16077, Section 4, as amended, and K.C.C. 2.130.010, Ordinance 18217, Section 2, as amended, and K.C.C. 2A.300.510, Ordinance 15955, Section 2, as amended, and K.C.C. 4A.200.430, and Ordinance 16693, Section 3, as amended, and K.C.C 24.22.020, adding a new section to K.C.C. chapter 4A.200, and recodifying K.C.C. 4A.200.430.
Body
STATEMENT OF FACTS:
1. The one-tenth of one percent sales and use tax supporting behavioral health programs and services and therapeutic court programs and services authorized by RCW 82.14.460 and K.C.C. 4A.500.315, which has been known in King County as the mental illness and drug dependency ("MIDD") sales and use tax, generates significant local revenue each year to support behavioral health care in the county.
2. For more than eighteen years, this tax has helped make behavioral health treatment and related services more available, accessible, and effective for King County residents.
3. While the tax remains a critical source of funding for the region's behavioral health services, the "mental illness and drug dependency" name no longer reflects the values and priorities that guide behavioral health work today. Behavioral health providers, partners, and community members have shared that the "mental illness and drug dependency" name contributes to stigma around behavioral health.
4. The programs and services supported by the tax bridge critical gaps in behavioral health funding left by insufficient federal and state resources, and help create a bridge between people experiencing mental health or substance use disorder-related needs, community behavioral health treatment services, other systems people interact with including the criminal legal system, and pathways to recovery. As a result, it is appropriate to rename the tax, fund, advis...
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