Executive Constantine’s State of the County: Taking action with purpose and resolve

Summary

King County Executive Dow Constantine gave his State of the County address, highlighting progress made over the last year in areas such as behavioral health, housing and homelessness, and transportation, and sharing a vision for the future. 

Story

Today King County Executive Dow Constantine delivered his 2024 State of the County address. He highlighted progress made in the past year and the continued work ahead, including action against gun violence, implementation of the Crisis Care Centers initiative, a county-wide response to the climate crisis, and investments in arts, heritage, and science organizations. 

Gun Violence Prevention 

"Last week three King County high school students were shot and killed. Cristopher Medina Zelaya was shot across the street from Kent-Meridian High School. Hazrat Ali Rohani was killed outside a sporting goods store in Renton. Amarr Murphy-Paine, was shot on the campus of Seattle’s Garfield High School. Each of these students was a family’s beloved child, a community’s hope for the future. Each of these deaths is an unthinkable tragedy, on the heels of so many tragedies...There is no quick fix in a nation awash in guns. But if this approach, which seems to be working elsewhere, can save even one life, we have to do it."

• 100 days of action against gun violence: Executive Constantine proposed launching 100 Days of Action, an initiative this summer and fall to intensify and align King County's work with cities, community partners, the Regional Peacekeepers Collective, the Sheriff’s Gun Violence Reduction Unit, and others. 

Behavioral Health 

“We all know that these issues are complex. There is no simple solution. That is why we are thoughtfully charting a path forward to deliver behavioral health care for everyone who needs it.” 

• Expanding 24/7 mobile crisis teams: King County now has 20 teams, including three for youth, who are traveling across the county to help people in crisis, with another 12 teams being added later this year. 
• Restoring residential treatment beds: King County is investing $15 million to restore the number of community residential beds in treatment facilities. 
• Tackling the opioid crisis: Public Health, DCHS, and UW Medicine opened a new 24/7 hotline that provides prescriptions to treat opioid use disorder, and more than 38,000 naloxone kits and almost 30,000 test strips were distributed in the first quarter of this year. 

Housing & Homelessness 

“Our challenge is to fix the housing market, while also creating housing for those who can’t compete or need additional help, like mental health treatment, to get back on their feet. That’s why we have acted.” 

• Providing housing & services: King County has expanded Health Through Housing in Auburn, Renton, Seattle, Redmond, and Burien, with nearly 1,400 units currently or soon to be open. King County will also open units in Federal Way and Kirkland in the coming year. 
• Keeping people stably housed: Last year, over 90% of people King County served who were formerly homeless remained housed – either with King County or in other permanent housing. 
• Expanding affordable housing: DCHS is driving new developments through our Housing Finance Program. In 2023, we opened more than 630 units of affordable housing across eight buildings. 

Public Transit 

“Planning continues to expand our system…ensuring millions of people have efficient, reliable transit while increasing access to affordable housing and driving down carbon emissions.” 

• Expanding frequent bus service: Last year, Metro opened the RapidRide H Line, connecting Burien to downtown Seattle, and this fall will launch the G Line serving more than 10,000 weekly riders, doubling frequency and shortening commutes along Seattle’s Madison Street. 
• Growing the regional transit network: Sound Transit light rail has opened the Eastlink starter line connecting Redmond to Bellevue and will cross county lines for the first time with the opening of Lynnwood Link later this summer. 

Climate & Environment

"We are putting our shoulder to the wheel to decarbonize King County, to make our region more resilient, sustainable, and equitable — taking urgent action to prepare our people and places for climate impacts and preserving and restoring our region’s cherished forests and waterways.” 

• Transitioning to a zero-emission fleet: Metro is on track to become one of the first large transit agencies in the country with a 100% zero-emission fleet. 
• Ensuring clean water & healthy habitat: Over the next decade, King County is investing $10 billion to protect water quality and habitat for people, salmon, and orcas. This includes making the infrastructure at West Point, Puget Sound’s largest wastewater treatment plant, safer, and more resilient and reliable. 
• Preparing for climate change impacts: King County is responding to the climate crisis across the entire county enterprise, from strengthening wildfire response and preparing the region for hotter summers to expanding green jobs.

Budget & Taxes 

“Through special levies and responsible budgeting, we’ve managed to continue patching together many of these services, albeit not at a level sufficient to meet the need. But now, after decades of arbitrary revenue restrictions, and a few years of much higher inflation, we are running out of options.” 

• Preserving essential health care: Executive Constantine is working on a solution to address the $35 million shortfall in King County’s general fund. This deficit has major implications for public health clinics. These clinics and related health programs serve nearly 80,000 people, the vast majority of whom are Black, Indigenous, or other People Of Color. Additionally, one in five clients is experiencing homelessness and one in four is uninsured. 

Doors Open 

“The cultural sector, battered by the pandemic, is an economic driver, and it’s essential to vibrant communities – for everyone. With Doors Open, every one of us can be part of the cultural conversation, regardless of means, regardless of zip code.”

• Strengthening our cultural fabric: King County’s Doors Open initiative is underway with investments rooted in access, equity, and opportunity for everyone. This August arts, heritage, and science organizations will be able to apply for early revenue to support their work. 

Full Speech Text 

Honorable Councilmembers, Chair Upthegrove, thank you for welcoming me back to these Council Chambers to report on the state of our county. 

First, let us acknowledge again that King County occupies the lands of numerous tribes and bands of the Coast Salish people, who have made this place their home since time immemorial. 

We respect their sovereignty and their right to self-determination and we will strive to be truthful about our past and bring about a future that honors people, and stories, and voices to create a more just and equitable society.

I know that you, Chair Upthegrove and the members of this council, and really, all of our employees join in that commitment. 

Councilmember Barón, Councilmember Mosqueda, welcome! You each bring a long record of advocacy and public service to this new role. 

And it is a great honor to work with you – and with all of the members on this dais – as we pursue our collective True North: Making this a welcoming community where every person can thrive. 

Today I address my remarks to you, and to the 2.3 million members of that community – the people of Martin Luther King County.

Yes, the challenges we face are indeed significant. But, here in King County, we have the courage to get the tough things done, acting with purpose and resolve even when it may not be easy. Even when the work doesn’t lend itself to a flashy headline.

Together, we seek to transform how government operates, solving problems in innovative ways; effectively; efficiently. This, rather than political theater, is how we best deliver needed services, and make a real impact in the lives of our residents. 

We acknowledge it when we stumble; when mistakes are made; and we stick to the path of continuous improvement. I’m grateful for the progress we’ve made, striving together for a better government and a fairer, more just society. We’ve expanded opportunity, we’ve safeguarded the health of our environment and our people, and set ourselves to the task of identifying and dismantling the systemic racism that holds our nation back.

Since I was here last year, we’ve continued to deliver, together. 

So, let’s start behavioral health. The behavioral health system has been underfunded for far too long in this nation and, yes, in this state. The need we see is increasing even as we lose treatment beds and qualified workers. 

And we all know that these issues are complex. There is no simple solution. And that’s why we are thoughtfully charting a path forward to deliver behavioral health care for everyone who needs it. 

Last spring, the voters approved our Crisis Care Centers levy – it’s a generational investment in our region’s behavioral health system. I want to take a moment to thank Councilmember Zahilay, who sponsored the legislation that put that measure on the ballot. 

It received strong voter support, and with that approval, even while the implementation plan was still being developed, we were able to take action to support those in need.

We launched our expanded mobile crisis teams, and as of today, we have 20 teams – including 3 exclusively for youth - traveling across the County to help community members in crisis, responding on average in less than an hour, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And we will be adding 12 more to scale our mobile crisis coverage for all regions of King County, so we can reach more people even faster.

Now the full implementation plan is before the Council, and I want to thank Councilmember von Reichbauer for your leadership in guiding this measure forward! Thank you, Councilmember.

With Council support, we are directing $15 million in early funding to stop the loss, and restore our current supply, of community residential beds in multiple treatment facilities.

The need, as you know, is urgent, and I know the Council is moving swiftly. And soon, clinics will be sited, nonprofit providers will be selected, caregivers will be trained, people in crisis will receive the urgent care they need. We know that treatment works and, with the right treatment, people recover – and thrive.

And as we begin to implement the Crisis Care Centers initiative, I stood with Councilmember Dunn and others to announce a suite of actions to tackle the fentanyl crisis, connecting people to the services and lifesaving interventions that are proven to work. 

In January, we opened a new 24/7 hotline thanks to a partnership with UW Medicine, Public Health, and DCHS. Anyone can now call to get a prescription to treat opioid use disorder. 

In its first four months, the hotline provided 200 prescriptions. We also distributed more than 38,000 life-saving naloxone kits and almost 30,000 test strips in just the first quarter of this year.

Last year our Emergency Services Patrol responded to over 22,000 calls and provided transportation for almost 7,000 people to the sobering center, to shelters, and to the services that people need to get their lives back on track. 

Our work here in King County is also getting national attention. I’m honored to co-chair the National Association of Counties’ Commission on Mental Health and Wellbeing – because counties are on the front lines, creating innovative, practical solutions locally, that can strengthen our nation’s mental health systems. 

This summer our Mental Health Commission will deliver its final report, featuring recommendations on our top policy priorities: Expanding and supporting the mental health workforce, building local crisis response systems,enforcing mental health insurance parity, and restoring Medicaid coverage for those in jail awaiting trial – many of whom have mental health or addiction challenges. 

Thank you to Councilmember Perry for her dedication to that cause, and for joining in not just our regional, but our national work. Thank you, Councilmember.

One widely held belief is that behavioral health issues, like untreated mental health or substance use disorders, are root causes of the homelessness crisis that we see all around us.

This is wrong.

University of Washington researcher Gregg Colburn has shown that the cause of the homelessness phenomenon is not individual challenges, but housing market failure. 

One factor distinguishing places with high homelessness from places with low homelessness is not the prevalence of addiction, or untreated mental health problems, or the availability of public assistance, or the weather, or even poverty.

The one critical difference is whether there are enough housing units to match the number of people who need homes. If not, somebody – usually the person with the least money or the greatest burdens – loses out and ends up on the streets.

Our challenge is to fix the housing market, while also creating housing for those who can’t compete or need additional help – like mental health treatment - to get back on their feet.

That’s why we have acted.

Since I was last before you, we have expanded Health through Housing. People in Auburn, Renton, Seattle, and most recently Redmond and Burien now have a place to call their own. Nearly 1,400 units are open or soon to be. 

And last year, more than 90 percent of the people we served remained housed – either with us or in other permanent housing. This approach works. In the coming year, King County will open additional Health Through Housing units in Federal Way, in Kirkland – bringing even more people inside.

Safe, affordable housing for all has the greatest impact on the health of our community. That’s why we’re also driving new developments through our Housing Finance Program. 

In 2023, we opened over 630 units across 8 buildings, ensuring access to stable, secure, affordable housing throughout the county – because we know that the homelessness and housing crisis is not limited to one city. 

Thank you to our city partners who have done great work in adopting new solutions - because our 39 cities are where most of the housing and the people need to be. We need more leadership like yours – permitting and promoting both subsidized and market-rate housing and, importantly, doing it in a way that protects what is great and distinct about each of our communities. 

And yet, all this good work is happening in the shadow of the greatest threat – global climate change. That’s why we are putting our shoulder to the wheel to decarbonize King County; to make our region more resilient, sustainable, equitable; taking urgent action to prepare our people and places for climate impacts; and preserving and restoring our region’s cherished forests and waterways. 

I want to thank Chair Upthegrove for his long-standing commitment to environmental stewardship and his partnership to create measurable results. Thank you, Mr. Chair!

This work is showcased at West Point. West Point is Puget Sound’s largest treatment plant, and a core part of the elaborate infrastructure that allows millions of people to live in this unique place while protecting our water quality. 

We have improved the plant to make it safer, more reliable, more resilient. And this September the biggest of those improvements will be completed, when we flip the switch on 40 tons of high-voltage batteries. I hope you can join me. These batteries will provide reliable power, especially during severe storms occurring more frequently because of climate change.

We are responding to the climate crisis across the entire County enterprise, from strengthening wildfire response and preparing the region for hotter summers to expanding green jobs.

And Metro is leading the way – cutting carbon emissions, improving air quality, reducing noise pollution, and on track to becoming one of the first large transit agencies in the nation with a 100% zero-emission fleet.

As part of our work to build a world-class transit network, we are also expanding RapidRide on many major corridors. The RapidRide H line now connects Burien to Downtown Seattle. This fall, we will launch the RapidRide Line G, to serve more than 10,000 weekly riders, doubling frequency and shortening commutes along Seattle’s Madison Street. 

And let’s not miss this opportunity as well to celebrate the expansion of Light Rail! We just marked the opening of Eastlink – connecting Redmond to Bellevue, and I want to extend a special thank you to Councilmember Balducci, a true transit champion without whom this could not have happened. 

But that’s not all. Just a few months from now - on August 30 - we will open Lynnwood Link. It will expand light rail across County lines for the first time, another major step in building a truly regional transit system! 

And we won’t stop there – planning continues to expand our system to West Seattle and Ballard, to Everett and Tacoma, and Issaquah, ensuring millions of people have efficient, reliable transit while increasing access to affordable housing and driving down carbon emissions. 

All of this is a big lift, requiring sustained focus from serious leaders not over years, but over decades. But, together, we are making King County, and Central Puget Sound, a thriving, healthier, more sustainable place for generations to come. 

And part of that is ensuring King County has a vibrant and highly diverse economy. At nearly 2.3 million people, we are the 12th largest of the more than 3,000 counties in the United States and, unquestionably, the economic engine of the State of Washington, of Puget Sound, and the Northwest.

We are also the birthplace of some of the world’s most successful companies large and small, with ample employment, strong labor leadership, and innovation driving economic growth. 

This economy: this economy is robust enough to provide for all the needs of the people - all the infrastructure, all the services needed for personal and business success, without anyone being overly burdened by the taxes they pay. If you have a little, you should pay a little. If you have more, you should pay a little more. If you have a lot, you should pay your fair share – though it might not be a lot to you.

Unfortunately, Washington’s tax system is broken. Those who make the most, pay the least. And those who make the least, pay the most. And the Legislature, through both Republican and Democratic majorities, has proven incapable of fixing it.

But we must celebrate progress when there is some, and there has been some progress. We can celebrate that Washington no longer has the most regressive tax system in the country. Thanks to the Legislature’s enactment of a tax on capital gains over a quarter million dollars, and the Working Families Tax Credit, Washington now has the second most regressive tax system in America – second to Florida – but still not the worst. 

Still, year after year, the Legislature fails to fix a completely unrealistic constraint that it placed on local government revenues nearly twenty years ago – one that is making it impossible to sustain the services people need.

Over the last two decades, King County’s population grew by about 34%, while inflation in our region was just over 90%. Meanwhile, since 2007 the Legislature has limited our primary general funding source, the property tax, to 1% plus new construction, meaning that we are now behind inflation and population growth to the tune of $400 million dollars per year.

That means a whole lot of services people expect, like roads and bridges, like help for the homeless, like gun violence prevention, and more, are continually at risk. 

Through special levies and responsible budgeting, we have managed to continue patching together many of these services, albeit not at a level sufficient to meet the need. But now, after decades of arbitrary revenue restrictions, and a few years of much higher inflation, we are running out of options.

In the budget I’m preparing for 2025, we face a $35 million shortfall in our general fund. This deficit has major implications for our Public Health clinics in particular – one of the last general fund services that is not mandated by state law.

Our public health clinics and related health programs serve nearly 80,000 people – the vast majority of whom are Black, Indigenous, or other People of Color. One out of five clients is experiencing homelessness, one out of four is uninsured. Simply put, these clinics and support services provide essential care to our community’s most vulnerable – those who fall through the cracks of the U.S. health care system. 

And here, the 2024 Legislature did provide some tools for us to work with, and I want to particularly thank Senator Jamie Pedersen, and Representatives Chipalo Street and Frank Chopp, among others. In my fall budget, I hope to be able to propose a solution, using this authority, to preserve care for those who need it and, as well, to bolster the great work UW Medicine does in operating one of the nation’s finest level-one trauma centers and teaching hospitals at Harborview.

Now, while we craft this next budget proposal, our progress toward our True North continues. Take, for example, strengthening the cultural fabric of our region. 

Thanks to years of work by advocates in Olympia and here at home, and the Council’s unanimous support – and I thank you for that – our Doors Open Initiative is underway, with investments rooted in access, equity, and opportunity. This August, arts, heritage, and science organizations will be able to apply for early revenue to support their work. 

The cultural sector, battered by the pandemic, is an economic driver, and it’s essential to vibrant communities for everyone. With Doors Open, every one of us can be part of the cultural conversation, regardless of means, regardless of zip code. The implementation plan you will consider in the coming months will move us closer to our ideal of being a place where every person is seen and heard… and can thrive.

People of different backgrounds, different ages, different incomes – living, working, learning together – that is what civic vitality looks like. And it’s also the vision at the heart of my proposal to create a new neighborhood right here where we are meeting today, and on the many underused blocks around this century-old Courthouse. 

Since I last spoke with you about the future of our civic campus, we have gathered ideas from community and government partners; the Urban Land Institute selected our project for its annual design competition, with student teams from around the nation visiting with fresh eyes and new perspectives; and the University of Washington College of Built Environments is creating an entire five-credit course around the Civic Campus Initiative. 

Why are people so excited about this? It’s because we have an opportunity to do something truly extraordinary here. We can create thousands of units of housing for people of all incomes, with affordable retail spaces and safe public places for those thousands of residents to meet and mingle and be in community. 

We can restore historic buildings, like this one, create a low-emission, clean energy district, and leverage the value of the county’s considerable land holdings to make it all possible. 

I want to thank Councilmember Dembowski for your ongoing interest and support as we move this vision forward. Thank you, Councilmember!

I had planned to end it there. But last week three King County high school students were shot and killed. Cristopher Medina Zelaya was shot across the street from Kent-Meridian High School. Hazrat Ali Rohani was killed outside a sporting goods store in Renton. Amarr Murphy-Paine, was shot on the campus of Seattle’s Garfield High School. Each of these students was a family’s beloved child; a community’s hope for the future. Each of these deaths is an unthinkable tragedy, on the heels of so many other tragedies.

In October I established the Regional Office of Gun Violence Prevention, and recently the leaders of our office were at the White House with our peers from across the country, and they heard from several jurisdictions that are seeing positive results from short, intensive violence prevention campaigns. 

So, I propose we build on these lessons, that we borrow from those jurisdictions, that we launch “100 Days of Action” – to use this summer and fall as a time to intensify and align our work with cities, with community partners, with the Regional Peacekeepers Collective, with the Sheriff’s Gun Violence Reduction Unit that we created last year, and many more. All of us. Together.

I have spoken with Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell; he is thinking along the same lines and shares the sense of urgency that we all feel about this. I understand Mayor Harrell will be making an announcement later this week to advance this collaboration and help stem the epidemic of gun violence, and support mental health for our youth.

To be clear, there is no quick fix in a nation awash in guns. But if this approach, which seems to be working elsewhere, can save even one life, then we have to do it. We have to.

Whether it is the struggle for safe communities, or a just society, or the survival of our planet, we have what it takes to drive change here and to lead the way for others. 

You see, in King County, we make plans to serve our vision and our values. But our work is not about the vision, or the values, or the planning. It is about summoning the courage to get difficult things done and to take that vision and make it real. A lot of folks do a lot of talking. We deliver. 

Building communities – shaping the future of a metropolitan region – takes vision, and skill, but, most of all, it takes determination. And as we reflect on our recent accomplishments, it’s important to remember we stand on the shoulders of our predecessors, and to do their memory justice we must use the time we are given here to leave this a better government, community, and planet for those who will follow us.

The state of Martin Luther King County – the place they built for us, and the place we are building for others – is strong. Resilient. Vibrant. Yes, we have challenges. But we also have solutions – and the vision and determination to see them through. 

I am honored to be here with all of you, joined in that work – knowing that through our collective action, we will in time make this region the place we envision – that welcoming community where every person can thrive. 

Thank you again for having me here today.

Relevant Links

• VIDEO: 2024 State of the County

For media inquiries:

Kristin Elia, Executive Office, 206-477-8209