What would happen if residents chose to remain an unincorporated area?
If residents choose to maintain the status of an unincorporated area, residents and businesses would see no change in the providers of governmental service. The unincorporated area would continue to receive the majority of local services from King County including local courts, sheriff, roads, land use planning, water and sewer service and others. Remaining unincorporated is an option that has other implications. King County faces a budget situation in which long-term expenditure growth exceeds revenue growth. As a matter of policy, King County will be unable, in the long term, to provide urban services in unincorporated areas. The King County Journal (Aug. 22, 2006 pg. A3) made the critical point “Other cities have one or more large potential annexation areas and (King County Executive) Sims is promoting annexations now before those areas begin to lose county services from the cash-strapped county. The cash-rich areas of unincorporated King County where businesses and industry might g
