Drafter
Clerk 08/27/2009
Title
A MOTION adopting findings and policies related to service delivery at King County's public health centers.
Body
WHEREAS, the 2009 adopted public health work program for the law, justice, health and human services committee ("LJHHSC") focused on development of policy direction for the 2010 budget regarding service delivery at the county's public health centers, and
WHEREAS, LJHHSC has carried out this work program over the past eight months through a series of structured monthly briefings on the public health centers and the health safety net in which they operate, and
WHEREAS, LJHHSC was guided in its work by the policy framework and strategies in the adopted public health operational master plan ("PHOMP"), and
WHEREAS, LJHHSC's work also benefited from analysis that staff from the Seattle- King County department of public health concurrently undertook related to Ordinance 16312, Section 92, Proviso P5, in the 2009 Budget Ordinance for public health, and
WHEREAS, LJHHSC conducted its work in the context of on-going significant financial challenges facing both the public health fund and the county's general fund, and
WHEREAS, the financial challenge for the public health fund became acute in 2001, with the loss of dedicated revenue from the motor vehicle excise tax ("MVET"), and
WHEREAS, since the loss of dedicated revenue from the MVET, the public health fund has been balanced through a combination of operational efficiencies identified in the PHOMP, service reductions and a significant increase in the county's general fund contribution to public health, doubling from fifteen million dollars in 2002 to over thirty million dollars in 2009, and
WHEREAS, after having been balanced to a gap of ninety-three million dollars in 2009, the county's general fund faces a projected gap in 2010 of fifty-six million dollars, and
WHEREAS, to help close this gap, the executive has established a preliminary target reduction in the general fund contribution to public health of about three million dollars, and
WHEREAS, because general fund revenues leverage other dedicated program revenues in public health, the budget reductions required to meet this general fund target could be much larger, and
WHEREAS, because about forty percent of the county's general fund contribution to public health supports the public health centers, this target, along with reductions in state revenue and the ongoing public health structural gap, places the public health centers at particular risk of reduction in 2010, and
WHEREAS, the LJHHSC public health work program was designed to develop, before transmittal of the executive's proposed budget ordinance, policy guidance regarding the service delivery of the public health centers that could assist the county in balancing the 2010 budget, and
WHEREAS, at its August 25, 2009, meeting, LJHHSC reviewed findings and associated policies in each of six areas developed through its work over the last eight months;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT MOVED by the Council of King County:
The King County council adopts the findings and policies related to service
delivery of the public health centers in Attachment A to this motion, dated August 25, 2009.
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