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 The behavioral health sales and use tax, originally enacted in King County in 2007 through Ordinance 15949, was extended in 2016 through Ordinance 18333.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 munici...
Click here for full text