I have read with much interest the debates going on over budgets, emergency services and the politics of deciding how all are funded.

The 2002 King County budget was passed by the County Council on Nov. 19 to the tune of $2.9 billion, and was touted as “Reflecting the priorities of King County residents.” But does it really reflect our priorities? My priority, bar none, is to provide my family a safe and happy home. Notice the word “safe” was used in my priority, and even used by the council when it said the budget “protects our public safety.”

Larry Phillips was right when he made a comment about armchair critics taking a stab at the passed budget, but let’s just focus on one aspect: security. (Yes, Mr. Phillips, my armchair is old and tattered, reflecting its use in honing my criticism and praise for many things.)

Sheriff Dave Reichert is responsible for many of us in Snoqualmie Valley feeling safe in our homes. King County provides police protection to all of the Valley (except Snoqualmie and Duvall) through city contracts and patrolling unincorporated areas.

As part of the effort to reduce the budget for the county in 2002, and reflecting a dismal economy, Reichert made $2 million in cuts. He saved money by reducing staff, mothballing police cruisers, etc. The reduction in cruisers actually provided an additional $450,000 in funds to be used for domestic security, an issue on everyone’s mind these days.

Now I am a firm believer in questioning expenditures when it comes to taxpayers’ dollars, but wouldn’t it have been prudent for the council to communicate with Reichert’s office, and vice versa, to assure all were on the same page with regard to the sheriff’s budget? Why am I not feeling safe with the council’s decision? The world dramatically changed after Sept. 11, as highlighted in several of the press releases from County Executive Ron Sims and council members. But the blame cannot rest solely on the council members who passed this budget. Sheriff Reichert should have been in the front row during the council’s deliberations on the budget, as a champion of our security.

I also agree with Councilman Rob McKenna, who said he believed some of the decisions were made as punishment for the passage of Initiative 747. His statement that, “The council majority made a deliberate decision to increase funding for the arts and for county employee cell-phone use, and to cut funding to our most important public safety agencies. I-747 had nothing to do with it,” highlights concerns that we should all have with regard to public safety budgeting.

On the other hand, as Sims has so eloquently stated many times, the county is forced to fund many mandates that come from both the state and federal levels. So here is a simple test of fiscal responsibility from a simple-minded taxpayer. Would I, Jim McKiernan, be willing to pay for it? If the answer is funding for public safety or emergency services, you bet. I kind of think this is what Tim Eyman has in mind each time he crafts one of his tax-revolt measures. Let me state this now, though: I am not a Tim Eyman supporter, but I do have to admit I like some of the benefits of his tax-revolt measures.

Another idea is to pull the sheriff’s budget completely out of the control of the County Council and put it into the voters’ hands. Tell me what you need, in detail, let me ask questions, then let me vote on it. If you don’t think King County voters are smart enough to figure things out, then you shouldn’t be representing us as an elected official.

What about school resource officers, a continuation of the former DARE program? Let’s take those out of the sheriff’s budget and put them in the school district’s maintenance-and-operation levy as a program fee. I would assume more voters would support spending the money if it was tied to the school district rather than tied to the city’s or county’s budget.

One thing is obvious, the federal government, state government, county government and city governments cannot continue to spend more than they gather in revenue. But take all this with a grain of salt since it is written from the confines of an old easy chair.