In an era of tough budget discussions, King County Council’s deliberations — which begin this week — look particularly hard.

The county is facing a $60 million shortfall in its 2011 $613 million general fund budget, a gaping hole County Executive Dow Constantine has proposed closing by making drastic cuts to both human services and criminal justice programs.

Should the council approve his budget, the county would eliminate the last of its human services programs supported by the general fund, including $800,000 in funding that aids victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.

Criminal justice programs would also feel the pinch: The departments that make up those programs — the courts, the prosecutor’s office and the sheriff’s office — would see a 10 percent across-the-board reduction. In the sheriff’s office alone, that would mean the elimination of 71 positions, including 28 deputies, severely limiting the agency’s ability to investigate cases.

“Someone may come to your house when you call 911, but that may be the end of it,” Constantine told the Bellevue Reporter, a sister paper to The Beachcomber, last week.

At the same time, however, another tough debate faces the county — and that’s whether to restore those cuts to the county’s budget by passing Proposition 1, which would increase the sales tax by 0.2 percent.

Councilwoman Jan Drago, who represents Vashon on the nine-member council, supports passage of the measure. “It’ll make a huge difference. If that passes, much of the pain goes away,” she said during an interview Monday.

But it would do so by raising the county’s sales tax to 9.7 percent, making it one of the highest sales taxes in the country. And Drago, a Democrat, acknowledges that such a tax is considered regressive — in other words, hardest on those who can least afford it.

“They’re right,” she said to critics who call it a regressive tax. “There isn’t a good argument against that.”

Such is the paradox of the county’s highly charged budget debates.

Prop. 1 has proven particularly divisive. Constantine, a liberal Democrat, proposed the measure, securing the support of the five Democrats on the county council to get it placed on the ballot measure. But since then, conservative groups, such as the Washington Policy Center, have taken aim at the measure, and even some liberal-leaning news organizations and good-government citizens groups have announced their opposition to the measure, including SeattlePI.com’s editorial board and the Municipal League of King County.

The league’s Ballot Issues Committee said it was disappointed the county would seek a tax “to fund popular and essential public-safety services” and urged the county to find other ways to balance the budget.

“While this may be a politically expedient way to fill a funding gap, it’s a poor way to govern. Essential services should be protected, not exploited,” the organization, which is helmed by Islander Lauri Hennessey, stated last month.

But Constantine, in his visit with the Bellevue Reporter’s editorial board last week, said he has sought efficiencies. This year’s budget — his first since becoming county executive — comes in at $613 million, down from a $630 million budget last year, and includes several savings through efficiencies, he said: The county, for instance, plans to change jury service to an on-call system, allowing jurors to stay home unless called to serve, which shaves $322,000 in mileage reimbursements from the budget.

Constantine’s budget contains a pledge to continue to seek 3 percent in efficiency savings every year.

“This is not a time where we can grab one-time monies and finance operations on debt and hope things are rosy two years from now,” Constantine told the Bellevue Reporter. “We’re planning as if it’s always going to be hard times.”

Meanwhile, the county is negotiating hard with its labor unions, urging them to forego planned cost-of-living increases so that some of their fellow workers who have received pink slips can rejoin county ranks. Last week, the county executive’s office issued a news release noting that 4,700 county employees had tentatively agreed to a zero percent cost-of-living increase; if approved by their members, the unions’ concessions could mean a nearly $1 million savings in the general fund.

The county executive’s budget reduces the county’s 13,000 full-time work force by more than 450 people, Drago said. Even with concessions by labor unions, the county will be leaner at the end of this budget cycle, she added.

“At the end of the day, 200 people will lose their jobs,” she said.

Vashon would not see a huge impact from the proposed cuts to the county’s budget, Drago said. As it stands right now, Vashon’s law enforcement staffing levels are already at a minimum: The Island only has two sheriff’s deputies on at any given time, the lowest number possible.

What’s more, the Island already lost its one advocate who worked with domestic violence victims; she left last year, after the last round of cuts to the human services budget.

But Islanders would — like other residents in the county — experience less investigation of property crimes, slower prosecutions and a more clogged county court system, she said.

“The whole process will get delayed,” Drago said. “It’ll affect individuals; it’ll affect businesses that have to wait longer.”

Drago, a veteran of city politics, said she’s used to a budget process based on consensus: When she was on the Seattle City Council, the councilmembers and the mayor strived to find common ground.

But as she enters the budget fray this week, she acknowledged that it will likely be divisive. The council is expected to approve the budget by Nov. 22. “It could easily be a 5-4 budget vote,” she said.

As for Prop. 1, the one good thing about the measure is that voters will get to weigh in on the issue. “I felt that we needed to give the citizens a choice,” Drago said.

Public hearings on the budget will be held at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 12, at Mt. Si High School in Snoqualmie, and at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 19, at the Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent. Or send an e-mail with your comments about the budget by visiting www.kingcounty.gov/council/budget/Testify_Online.aspx.