(The Center Square) – Finances figured prominently in King County Executive Down Constantine’s final State of the County address Wednesday afternoon. He said the county is in good financial standing, but warned tough decisions are coming.
Constantine delivered his 16th and final report in his 16-year tenure on Wednesday. He touted his work as county lead, including efforts to expand the county’s public transportation network, especially Sound Transit’s light rail system, which now connects Seattle with Snohomish County; environmental work, including successfully seeing more than 8,000 kokanee salmon return to their historic spawning grounds last year; securing over 1,400 stable housing units across 11 buildings through the county’s Health Through Housing program; and expanding access to behavioral health and drug addiction services through the Crisis Care Centers Levy.
King County is facing a $150 million budget deficit. Constantine, along with other county leaders, blame the state’s 1% cap on property tax growth that has been in place since 2001.
According to Constantine, if revenue had kept up with inflation and population growth since 2001, property taxes this year would have contributed about $914 million to the general fund. The actual revenue is projected to be about $440 million.
“Those dollars could have been used to fund critical programs like behavioral health services – public health clinics – public safety,” Constantine said in his address.
Constantine did point to a recently proposed $78.5 billion operating budget from state Senate Democrats for the 2025-2027 biennium. The proposal would allow the cap to increase based on inflation and population, but never to exceed 3%.
“I want to be clear: King County is financially healthy, but all we’ve done to mitigate the impact of the ever-declining general fund could not erase this artificially-created structural deficit,” he said. “Unless we get help from the Legislature, as the next biennial budget is prepared over the coming months, there will be tough and harmful choices.”
Constantine is not running for reelection this year, and is set to be appointed as the next Sound Transit CEO, if approved by the agency’s board of directors on Thursday.
Constantine said he cannot think of a better next chapter than becoming Sound Transit CEO, where he will continue to work on improving the region’s public transportation network.
If the board approves his appointment, Constantine will leave office sooner than he said he expected. Constantine’s term as county executive ends Jan. 1, 2026.
His successor, he said, will have critical work to do.
“Serving you as your executive has been the honor of a lifetime,” Constantine said. “Farewell.”
