Title
AN ORDINANCE providing for the submission to the qualified electors of King County at a special election to be held in King County on April 25, 2023, of a proposition authorizing a property tax levy in excess of the levy limitation contained in chapter 84.55 RCW, for a consecutive nine-year period, at a first year rate of not more than $0.145 per one thousand dollars of assessed valuation for collection beginning in 2024, with the 2024 levy amount being the base for calculating increases in years two through nine (2025 - 2032) by the limit factor in chapter 84.55 RCW, as amended, for regional behavioral health services and capital facilities to establish and operate a regional network of behavioral health crisis care centers; to preserve, expand and maintain residential treatment facilities; to provide behavioral health workforce supports; to provide mobile crisis care and post-discharge stabilization; to pay, finance or refinance costs of those projects; and for administration, coordination, implementation and evaluation of levy activities.
Body
STATEMENT OF FACTS:
1. King County's behavioral health crisis service system relies heavily on phone support and outreach services, with very few options of places for persons to go for immediate, life-saving care when in crisis.
2. As of September 2022, the Crisis Solutions Center, operated by Downtown Emergency Service Center and requiring mobile team, first responder or hospital referral for entry, is the only voluntary behavioral health crisis facility for the entirety of King County, and no walk-in urgent care behavioral health facility exists in King County.
3. A coalition of community leaders and behavioral health providers issued recommendations to Seattle and King County in an October 13, 2021, letter that included recommendations to "expand places for people in crisis to receive immediate support" and "expand crisis response and post-crisis follow up services."
4. Call volume to King County's r...

Click here for full text