The King County Council notified us reporters a few minutes ago that chairman Dow Constantine's office, at close of business today, was notified by King County Assessor Scott Noble that he has resigned.

Here's the letter of resignation.

Noble pleaded guilty to drunk driving last month and is scheduled for sentencing tomorrow.

This is a follow-up to my earlier post-story on the state revenue forecast. Gov. Chris Gregoire's budget office sent out the actual text of the letter she sent to state agency directors and college presidents, etc.

I'm still wondering why the Legislature imposed a hiring and out-of-state travel freeze back in February, but set it to expire on June 30. Why would they do that?

Anyway, The Guv is asking her agencies to voluntarily continue that.

June 18, 2009

TO: Statewide Elected Officials
Agency Directors
Presidents of Higher Education Institutions
State Boards and Commissions

FROM: Christine O. Gregoire, Governor
SUBJECT: Additional Budget Savings

On June 18th, the Washington State Economic and Revenue Forecast Council announced an additional reduction to the General Fund State revenue forecast. Although there are encouraging signs in the national and state economy, the size of the revenue reduction necessitates quick action to curb spending in the 2009-11 biennial budget.

Therefore, I am imposing a hiring cap on executive agencies equal to a 2 percent reduction in their 2009-11 General Fund, budgeted, full time equivalent (FTE) levels and I ask agencies to take additional spending reductions. Implementation instructions will be communicated by the Office of Financial Management before July 1.

=> Read more!

This may not make anyone forget U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott's office manager and her "Don't call me, Liz" e-mail tirade, but maybe it will take some of the heat off her.

Here's another Politico blog posting that will entertain you.

(Sorry, you'll have to listen to a 15-second Applebee's commerical, but it's worth the wait.)

From time to time, I have encountered a legislative committee chairwoman who prefers to be called "chairman." Our journalistic style rule is, if you know the gender, use it. It's more specific. And we hate, "chair person."

--Joseph (Don't Call me 'Joey') Turner

A couple days ago I posted an item that said there was a bill working its way through Congress that would let public transit agencies spend some of their federal stimulus money on bus driver salaries instead of just buses.

This news release from U.S. Sen. Patty Murray of Washington provides a bit more detail. They could use as much as 10 percent of their federal stimulus on operating expenses.

Many transit agencies across the country have been planning lay-offs, staff furloughs, and significant service cuts because of the strain on their budgets. Senator Murray’s language, will allow these agencies to use up to 10% of the $6.9 billion in formula grant funding received under the Recovery Act for operating costs.

Senator Murray has heard from transit agencies across the country who need support to cover costs and protect against cuts, including Pierce County Transit whose CEO reacted to today’s news:

“The inclusion of this amendment will allow Pierce Transit to keep valuable service on the street and jobs in our community, while addressing a 15 percent (nearly $10 million) decline in revenue,” said Lynne Griffith, CEO of Pierce Transit.

Here's the full news release from Murray:

=> Read more!

Here's the story I wrote for Friday's paper. Here is the revenue report.

Also, here is a follow-up posting that shows the letter the governor wrote to her cabinet and others, telling them to cut their payrolls by the equivalent of 2 percent.

And below my story are news releases from Gov. Chris Gregoire's budget office, and from Sen. Joe Zarelli, top Republican on the forecast council. I'll post other viewpoints below them as they come in.

BY Joseph Turner
The News Tribune

Gov. Chris Gregoire plans to order another round of state government spending cuts after Thursday’s revenue forecast showed the state will almost run out of money by mid-2011 unless those cuts are made.

Arun Raha, Washington’s chief economist and chairman of the state Economic and Revenue Forecast Council, said he now expects tax collections over the next 25 months will be $487 million lower than what Raha predicted back in March.

The bottom line: Without any changes to state spending, the state’s main checking account will have negative balance of $194.5 million). There still would be $247 million in an emergency savings account, so overall the state budget would be a positive $53 million.

That’s not much considering the state expects to collect $29.83 billion in taxes for its general fund between July 1, 2009 and June 30, 2011.

=> Read more!

For years Pierce County Sheriff Paul Pastor has been saying his department is understaffed and overworked (see, for example, this story, where the sheriff says his department is “staffed on a razor’s edge”).

But a new report by the County Council’s performance audit staff suggests the sheriff’s department’s staffing and workload aren’t out of line when compared to other agencies and given crime rates in recent years.

I’m writing about the report for an article this weekend. But you can download a PDF copy here.

Some key findings:

• Staffing more than kept pace with workload increases from 2004 to 2008. The number of deputies has grown at a faster rate than the number of the most serious crimes and calls for service, the report found. Response times to the most serious calls for service have remained relatively steady. The sheriff’s department has received a growing proportion of the county’s general fund budget.

• Pierce County sheriff’s staffing and workload are similar to those in other county and city law enforcement agencies. The number of commissioned officers per 1,000 residents in the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department is consistent with other Western Washington counties, the report found. The county has fewer sworn officers per 1,000 residents than the cities of Tacoma, Lakewood and Puyallup; however, the county has a much lower rate of the most serious crimes than those jurisdictions.

• More detailed performance measures are needed to better assess department staffing, workload and efficiency.

• The report recommends a detailed workload analysis of sheriff’s department next year. It recommends the county contract with a firm with expertise in law enforcement issues.

The report comes with plenty of caveats. But it seems to support the suspicions of some on the County Council that the sheriff’s department could make better use of available resources. A key point of contention: the council wants the sheriff to staff a popular neighborhood patrol deputies program, but the sheriff has reassigned some of those deputies to regular patrol jobs.

I’ve got a call in to the sheriff to get his take on the report. He recently told the council’s performance audit committee that he hadn’t had a chance to read it.

Update: You can read the sheriff's response to the report here.