King County Executive Dow Constantine, in perhaps his last speech after nearly three decades in elected office, praised the progress the county has made during his four terms at the helm: dozens of miles of new light rail, thousands of acres of wilderness preserved and new affordable housing, shelter beds and mental health facilities.
Constantine, who has been tabbed as the next CEO of Sound Transit and therefore is likely to leave office early, also pointed to the challenges the county faces: a dire budgetary situation, massive income inequality and “the aggressive sabotage of America’s democratic institutions.”
Constantine — first elected as county executive in 2009 after a dozen years in lower offices — has led the state’s largest county through four presidential administrations, three governors and seven Seattle mayors.
He took office in the wake of a global economic meltdown and led the county as the nation’s first cases and deaths from the COVID pandemic were discovered here.
“We have navigated those difficulties — holding fast to our values — and created real and meaningful change for the people of King County,” Constantine said in his annual State of the County address Wednesday afternoon at Kerry Hall in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood.
Constantine had already announced he would not seek a fifth term, but his exit from office has now (probably) been expedited. Sound Transit this week nominated Constantine from among 60 applicants to be its next CEO. The choice is likely to be confirmed Thursday by a vote of the Sound Transit board. Constantine sits on the board but has recused himself from CEO discussions and votes. Half of the board was appointed by Constantine.
His time as county executive, throughout, been linked with the transit agency. Sound Transit opened its first few miles of light rail in Seattle — from Westlake Station to Tukwila — a few months into Constantine’s first term. Today, the agency has 44 miles of light rail and 43 stations, and will grow to 62 miles and 51 stations by next year, Constantine said Wednesday.
Constantine was the driving force behind the 2016 passage of Sound Transit 3, a ballot measure in which voters approved 62 new miles of light rail as well as massive expansions of regional bus service.
“We have prioritized building the high-capacity transit system this region should have built 50 years ago,” he said.
Still, the agency faces massive challenges as it works to build the regional transit system it has promised voters. Skyrocketing construction inflation already has delayed future lines to Everett and Ballard and cost estimates have risen by billions, as the agency has yet to settle on final routes for lines that were approved nearly a decade ago.
Meanwhile, Constantine is leaving office with the county’s finances in a state of flux. On Wednesday, as he has done consistently, he blamed Olympia, pointing to a state law that caps property tax growth at no more than 1% per year.
“That policy continues to severely limit our ability to fund essential services,” he said. If property tax revenues had kept pace with inflation and population growth since 2001, Constantine said, the county general fund would have brought in about $914 million this year. Instead, the revenue will be around $440 million, he said.
Constantine and members of the Metropolitan King County Council have said the county faces a $150 million gap in its general fund for its next two-year budget, which could lead to significant cuts to public health programs and the criminal legal system.
“I want to be clear: King County is financially healthy,” Constantine said. But “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 touted several initiatives he’s proposed over the years that have been repeatedly approved by voters and become part of the fabric of county government.
A push to purchase forests, farmland and riversides, to preserve the county’s “last, best” open spaces, has permanently protected about 30,000 acres, about halfway to its goal.
The Best Starts for Kids levy, initially a $400 million effort in 2015 to intervene earlier in children’s lives, was reapproved by voters in 2021 for nearly $900 million over six years. It funds prenatal programs, school health centers, after-school and summer programs, and youth homelessness prevention.
“It’s a truly generational investment, helping babies grow up, through the school years and into young adulthood,” Constantine said, saying it has “reached more than 750,000 King County kids and their families.”
Constantine noted the county’s “Health through Housing” program, which buys old hotels and similar buildings to transform them into supportive housing for the chronically homeless.
He said the program has secured more than 1,400 housing units across 11 buildings. Fewer than half those units, however, are up and running.
He also touted the county’s work on climate change, calling it our “greatest challenge and greatest threat,” from beginning to transition to electric buses, to reducing the region’s per capita carbon emissions, to preparing for the inevitable consequences by building wildfire preparedness.
In closing, he urged the crowd not to “succumb to the cynicism and the threats issuing from the other Washington.
“We have the industry, the intellect, the character and the values to stand strong and chart our own course,” Constantine said. “Our way, our defense of human dignity, our commitment to the stewardship of our democratic institutions and of our planet will be the future, because it must be.”
