Edi­tor’s Note: It is our great plea­sure tonight to wel­come King Coun­ty Exec­u­tive Dow Con­stan­tine to NPI’s Cas­ca­dia Advo­cate. In this spe­cial guest post, Exec­u­tive Con­stan­tine explains why it is crit­i­cal that we pass King Coun­ty Propo­si­tion #1, the Best Starts for Kids levy, this Novem­ber. NPI has tak­en a posi­tion enthu­si­as­ti­cal­ly sup­port­ing this mea­sure, and we urge your support.

In a region of bound­less oppor­tu­ni­ty, where key eco­nom­ic indi­ca­tors like the employ­ment rate, home val­ues and aver­age house­hold income are all on the rise, it is easy to over­look that there are also neg­a­tive trends and star­tling inequities in King Coun­ty that threat­en our long-term prosperity.

Since 2000, King Coun­ty has added 85,000 net new house­holds, 96 per­cent of which earn either less than $35,000 or more than $125,000 a year. Over the same peri­od, 80% of the growth in pover­ty has occurred in the sub­urbs, and below-pover­ty house­holds are dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly con­cen­trat­ed in com­mu­ni­ties of color.

Con­fronting these inequities is a moral imper­a­tive, but it is also nec­es­sary for our region’s long term eco­nom­ic success.

If King Coun­ty is to con­tin­ue to pros­per, we must give all of our children—regardless of race, or fam­i­ly income, or zip code—the best start in life we can.

That’s why I pro­posed the Best Starts for Kids levy, King Coun­ty Propo­si­tion 1, and why I am ask­ing for your vote.

Today, three-quar­ters of King County’s Gen­er­al Fund bud­get is spent on the jus­tice sys­tem, includ­ing police, courts, lawyers, and jails.

The Coun­ty spends much of its time and resources fig­ur­ing out the best way to respond to neg­a­tive out­comes in people’s lives. For want of an ounce of pre­ven­tion, we must pay for pound after pound of expen­sive and inef­fec­tive cure.

With just over $1 per week for the aver­age house­hold, Propo­si­tion 1 will help trans­form how we invest in our children’s future by tran­si­tion­ing to less expen­sive, more effec­tive upstream solu­tions to some of the great­est chal­lenges we face in our com­mu­ni­ty includ­ing men­tal ill­ness, addic­tion, domes­tic vio­lence, home­less­ness, and incarceration.

Best Starts for Kids is based on ground­break­ing research pro­duced at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Washington’s Insti­tute for Learn­ing and Brain Sci­ences, which pro­vides us with unprece­dent­ed insight into key devel­op­men­tal milestones.

That’s why half of the fund­ing from Propo­si­tion 1 will go toward ear­ly child­hood devel­op­ment, from birth through age 5, when 92 per­cent of brain growth occurs. We’ll sus­tain the gain by pro­vid­ing ear­ly inter­ven­tion as prob­lems such as seri­ous depres­sion and chem­i­cal depen­den­cy emerge dur­ing teenage years.

And to ensure that the place where a child lives rein­forces the progress they make, we will invest in strate­gies to make our com­mu­ni­ties safer and healthier.

King Coun­ty is already home to pro­grams pro­duc­ing remark­able results that improve the health and well-being of our region.

The Nurse-Fam­i­ly Part­ner­ship pro­vides home vis­i­ta­tions where spe­cial­ly trained nurs­es and com­mu­ni­ty-based providers help low income moth­ers get their babies off to a strong, healthy start. Com­mu­ni­ty-based neu­rode­vel­op­men­tal cen­ters are pro­vid­ing ear­ly inter­ven­tion ser­vices that can pre­vent a devel­op­men­tal delay from becom­ing a life­long dis­abil­i­ty. And ear­ly learn­ing facil­i­ties are pro­vid­ing effec­tive pro­grams to low income fam­i­lies and chil­dren with disabilities.

The Best Starts for Kids Levy is our oppor­tu­ni­ty to make the most effec­tive tools avail­able to every par­ent and care­giv­er in our com­mu­ni­ty, so they can help our young peo­ple grow into the tal­ent­ed, cre­ative, and moti­vat­ed work­ers we need to con­tin­ue mov­ing our region forward.

Best Starts for Kids is a com­pre­hen­sive, sci­ence-based approach that will turn proven ideas into action, and help ensure that King Coun­ty is a fair, just and equi­table place to live; a place where all peo­ple – regard­less of the wealth of their par­ents or the col­or of their skin – can achieve their full poten­tial in life; and where our pros­per­i­ty isn’t undone by our inequity.

Please join me in sup­port­ing Best Starts for Kids (King Coun­ty Propo­si­tion 1). Vote yes and return your bal­lot by Novem­ber 3rd, 2015.