At a committee meeting May 5, the King County Council heard about potential revenue losses over the next few years.

Dwight Dively of the Office of Performance, Strategy and Budget said that an interim revenue forecast expects that over three years (through 2022), King County’s sales tax revenues will decline by $79 million for the general fund, by $397 million for Metro Transit, and by $42 million for the mental illness and drug dependency (MIDD) fund. As with the preliminary state revenue estimate, there is a lot of uncertainty here. (In 2019, King County’s general fund sales tax revenues were $137.6 million, transit sales tax revenues were $685.0 million, and MIDD fund sales tax revenues were $74.8 million.)

Dively said that unless federal aid comes in that can be used to cover revenue shortfalls, the county’s next biennial budget process will be difficult. However, given current reserves, he doesn’t think immediate general fund cuts will need to be made. But MIDD spending may need to be cut starting this year, and Metro Transit is facing “a very serious financial problem.”

On May 12, the King County Council approved an ordinance that makes supplemental appropriations of $62.9 million related to the COVID-19 emergency. (This is on top of a March ordinance that appropriated $27.4 million for this purpose.) A staff summary noted, “most of the appropriation included in the proposed ordinance would be funded by state monies that may be available for the COVID-19 public health emergency, and federal monies that are currently, or will be, available to the county from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.”

King County received $261.6 million from the federal government as part of the CARES Act’s coronavirus relief fund. According to the staff summary, because these funds are more flexible than some other funding, “Executive staff indicate they are making an effort to ensure that the county exhausts all other available state and federal funding before utilizing the $262 million from the Coronavirus Relief Fund.”

Regarding the CARES Act funding, Dively said during the May 5 meeting, “It would be very helpful” if before the June supplemental, “we could come up with some high-level policies about how we want to use the money.” At the May 12 meeting, Dively reiterated this point that King County currently has no policy on the use of CARES Act funds. (Contrast that with the approach taken by Pierce County.)