2023-2024 Executive

Proposed Budget

Affordable Housing and Homelessness

• $5.7 million to add a sobering center site to the SODO shelter hub. Sobering center operations will be funded through the American Rescue Plan.
• $45 million in bonds backed by lodging tax revenues will be issued in 2023 to fund affordable housing near transit stations. 
• $89 million to continue funding a coordinated crisis response to homelessness led by the King County Regional Homelessness Authority. 
• Continuing Health Through Housing investments to fund the ongoing operations, maintenance, and rehabilitation of 1,600 units of permanent supportive housing in former hotels across the county.  
  
  
  

Anti-Racist and Pro-Equity

• $10 million for a second round of participatory budgeting for residents of urban unincorporated King County. The first round of participatory budgeting concluded successfully in August 2022, with residents selecting 45 capital projects to fund in their communities.
• $710,000 to provide ongoing support for King County’s Pro-Equity and Anti-Racist Community Co-Creation team, which creates community opportunities to participate in transparent and accountable governance through groups such as the King County Equity Cabinet, the Racism is a Public Health Crisis Gathering Collaborative, and the Coalition Against Hate and Bias. 
• $1.7 million to improve language equity, including expanding translation of the King County websites.
• $4.8 million to build King County’s internal organizational capacity for pro-equity, racial, and social justice work, including providing additional training for staff, improving capacity for community engagement and co-creation with community-based organizations, and developing strategies to advance disability justice.

Environment

• $28.5 million in capital investments to remove blockages to fish passage habitat. King County will restore access to 50 percent of fish passage habitat by 2032.  
• $23.2 million to help restore Puget Sound by removing nutrients such as nitrogen and “forever chemicals” from wastewater.  
• $180 million to purchase battery-electric buses and $43 million in zero-emissions infrastructure to ensure that Metro’s 1,400 coach bus fleet is zero emissions by 2035.   
• $2.9 million to expand access to heat pumps and solar panels through a new loan-loss program and an expansion of the Energize pilot program in Unincorporated King County.

Justice and Safety

• $2.1 million to launch new co-responder units so behavioral health professionals can address crises together with law enforcement. This expansion will enable the Sheriff’s Office to have co-responders in each precinct.  
• $16.5 million to continue programs to provide community-based accountability and services for youth and adults via Restorative Community Pathways and the Community Diversion Program.
• $9 million to support the Regional Peacekeepers Collective, trusted messengers delivering a community-led approach to gun violence prevention including critical incident response, hospital-based referrals, and hot spot remediation activities.
• $5 million to provide all Sheriff patrol deputies with body-worn cameras. Deployment of cameras and associated training will begin immediately and phased in over the next three years.