East King News

Issues in race and legal system outcomes throughout the nation have had an impact on the King County budget as funding has been moved around to address those problems on local level.

County Executive Dow Constantine presented the budget recently, highlighting changes in spending priorities for the county, a press release on the county website reported. Among those changes will be to divest $4.6 million in marijuana tax revenue, taking funding intended for law enforcement and moving it to community-based programs. The county will also invest $6.2 million in Restorative Community Pathways. That is a program which helps youths, most of which are low-income people of color in legal troubles. A total of $1.9 million has been slated to divest in detention with ongoing limits on jail enforcement efforts.

The county wants to co-create and implement alternative to policing in unincorporated areas. That would involve partnering professionals with law enforcement to address mental health issues. The last four significant items are investing $400,000 in regional gun violence response, invest $2.7 million in a community justice model to provide diversion services for first-time offenders of low-level crimes of hopes of breaking cycles of offenses. The county wants to re-imagine fare enforcement on its Metro and invest in community engagement.