Dunn gives State of the County presentation to Enumclaw officials

Published 3:10 pm Monday, March 2, 2026

How’s King County shaping up?

According to King County Council member Reagan Dunn, it’s a mixed bag, but there have been some major improvements and accomplishments last year.

Dunn visited Enumclaw to give his annual State of the County presentation during the Feb. 23 council meeting.

He started with an overview of the county, likely to the benefit of Enumclaw’s four freshmen council members: King County is the 12th largest county in the U.S., employs 1,800 people, and runs on a $20 billion biannual budget.

Dunn represents District 9, which includes Enumclaw and Black Diamond as well as parts of Bellevue and Newcastle — eight cities total, and all with quite different needs.

“The challenge for me is to really try to get a sense of how I can best represent each one of the cities and the specific focus of each one of those cities,” Dunn said.

The King County Council member started his presentation with the results of a district-wide survey, which showed that the top three issues of the respondents included reducing crime and improving public safety (60%), reducing property taxes (54%) and reducing inflation and cost of living (30%).

That includes no longer passing county-wide taxes; Dun noted that the majority of respondents did not approve any of the last five tax measures.

“And that is a constant theme out here in Southeast King County,” Dunn said. “This tends to be the area… of the county that wants the least amount of new taxes… there is a cultural or value different there that is interesting sometimes.”

Another 60% of respondents are worried the economy will get worse this year, while 17% believes it will improve.

TOP ACCOMPLISHMENTS

According to Dunn, one of the county’s top accomplishments last year greatly improved the lives of Plateau residents: repairing the White River bridge after it was struck by an over-height vac truck last August.

Early projections put the bridge opening between Halloween and mid-November.

However, with help from the state and Gov. Bob Ferguson and cooperation with local leaders, crews working 24/7 were able to open the bridge at least half a month early on Oct. 16.

“Quite frankly… [the state was] lightning quick in their response to getting that bridge back. They really were. It’s probably the quickest I’ve seen a bridge repaired and replaced in my time as an elected official,” Dunn said. “Whatever your partisan leanings… the governor, with the help of a lot of people, included local electeds, got that bridge fixed and I’m proud of the work that was done in order to make that work happen… that was a big victory.”

Other accomplishments included adding new commissioner positions to reduce the backlog of housing court cases, which lowers costs for renters and landlords; and increased funding for the King County Sheriff’s Department to reverse staffing reductions in unincorporated communities.

2026 PREVIEW

Dunn said the county council will be considering some serious legislation over the next ten months, including overseeing a Department of Community and Human Services, which was found to have failed in performing in-depth reviews of its grantees.

DCHS handles nearly 90% of county grants, handling $1.87 billion in 2023 and 2024; while policy states the department is supposed to conduct in-depth review of 33% of its grantees per year, it only examined 2% in 2022, and 1% the following year.

“We want to make sure that people’s tax dollars are being spent wisely and there was some pretty strong evidence that it wasn’t,” Dunn said.

But there are two items that could affect the Enumclaw area directly.

The first is the potential implementation of a county-wide Transportation Benefit District that would fund transportation needs in unincorporated areas.

A TBD is a special taxing district that is funded through sales and use taxes up to 0.3%.

“I think the thinking is it would be a county-wide district, a taxing district, but right now it’s only focused on roads.”

“The thought I would want to leave you with is that it would be a county-wide tax, including Seattle, paying for only unincorporated area roads,” Dunn said. “I don’t know where you would come down as a city, but it’s an interesting proposal that I think is worth considering, because it would be a net flow of dollars from the urban core in King County out to the rural core, which is very unusual in terms of tax structures.”

The county also expects to examine its flood response procedures in light of the December 2025 flood that hit Enumclaw and much of South King County.

SUBSTANCE USE AND RECOVERY

Dunn has been a supporter of substance use and recovery programs, having been a lead in creating the King County Recovery Champion Award in 2022 and began the King County Conference on Substance Use in 2021, back when 34% of all overdoses in King County stemmed in South King County.

The sixth-annual conference is scheduled for July.

Dunn presented data on how fatal and fatal overdoses spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic years.

In 2023, non-fatal overdoses reached a high of 8,04 — more than double in 2021.

There were 1,340 overdose deaths that year as well.

Since then, non-fatal overdoses dropped t0 6,422 last year, and fatal overdoses to 917.

“… The good news is it’s come back down a bit, which I think is a sign in progress,” Dunn said. “We’re coming back down, but we’re still was over the baseline there, and that’s something I’ll continue to watch.”

HOMELESSNESS IN WASHINGTON

The numbers for substance use and recovery look promising, but the numbers about homelessness in Washington state look far less positive.

According to Dunn, Washington experienced a more than 25% increase in homelessness between 2023 and 2024, with an estimated total county of homeless residents of more than 16,000.

That puts the state in third place for the highest homeless population, behind California and New York.

This is despite the fact that the King County Regional Homeless Authority manages a $250 million budget.

“That is a very serious problem,” Dunn said. “Clearly it has a lot of causes — some of them are generated by bad policies. I don’t know why the Pacific Northwest has become a dead end… but it has.”

OTHER METRICS

Dunn noted that violent crime has been dropping in King County — the total number of reported shots fired in 2025 was around 1,507, down from a record if 1,701 in 2023.

Last year’s count brought the county back to 2020 levels.

Homicides are also down, from a record 158 in 2023 to 114 last year.

But while the number of serious crimes seem to be decreasing, Dunn said juvenile crime remains an issue.

“The juvenile crime problem is not doing nearly as well as the adult crime problem,” he said. “… I’m concerned about policy choices that are being made on the juvenile crime sort of things.”

Dunn said that between 2021 and 2024, juvenile crime referrals rose by 104%, and property, drugs, and other felony crimes by juveniles rose by 314%.

Referrals dropped last year, from a high of 2,328 in 2024 to 2,097.

Filings also dipped, from a record 867 in 2024 to 779 last year.

Dunn also noted that the court case backlog in King County continues to be “severely backlogged,” and as of January 2024, there were 4,341 open cases.

COMMUNITY INVESTMENTS

Dunn ended his presentation announcing the recipients of more than $271,000 in grants this year.

Recipients include $100,000 for the city of Enumclaw to improve its flagpoles in front of city hall and replace the concrete walkways in celebration of the U.S.’ 250th anniversary; the Enumclaw Expo Center, Plateau Outreach Ministries, the King Count Fair, Plateau Kids Network, and the Rainier Foothills Wellness Foundation, among others.

“Just ask and I’ll work on it for you,” Dunn said.