King County faces $50 million budget shortfall over the next two years. If it is not corrected, the Sheriff’s office is expected to take a $3.8 million hit.
As MyNorthwest.com reports, “the helicopters, used for search and rescue and to capture bad guys, are on the chopping block.” King County Sheriff John Urquhart is not happy about it — he recently stated, “Frankly people are going to die if we don’t have a helicopter to go in and get them out.”
Democrat County Executive Dow Constantine agrees. But, his solution is typical of the liberals who grow the size of government and then are shocked – just shocked – when the bill comes due.
Constantine blames the state legislature for “failing to lift the state’s strict 1 percent property tax ceiling, saying it severely limits the amount of money all counties in the state can collect, including King.”
Rather than immediately resort to raising taxes to protect emergency services, perhaps Constantine should consider a more creative solution — like making county government more efficient, or live within its means.
Just an idea, but perhaps King County Metro could go without a glorified potty break coordinator that gets paid $100,000 a year – plus benefits. Maybe, just maybe, that task could be delegated to existing bureaucrats.
Of course, Democrats are not creative when it comes to efficiency… only when it comes to raising taxes spending other peoples’ hard-earned dollars.
