KING COUNTY, Wash. -- A number of county employees will be laid off in order to balance next year's budget, King County Executive Ron Sims announced in an internal note on Tuesday.

Sims said "a substantial number of layoffs," which will take effect on Jan. 1, will be announced on Oct. 14, the day after he gives his budget speech.

Due to the national financial crisis the county's budget shortfall has spiked from $25 million last year to $60 million in the spring, to a projected $90 million for next year, Sims said. More than $54 million of the estimated $90 million is "directly or indirectly attributable to the financial crisis gripping the nation," he said.

All but $15 million of the swelled budget gap has been accounted for, the executive said, and layoffs and freezes will close this final gap.

"In the end it was not possible to find over $90 million in program and service reductions in one year without drastically compromising King County's first rate criminal justice system or dismantling King County's public's health and human services safety net," he said.

In addition to the layoffs, the county will not use its Cost of Living Adjustment formula (COLA), Sims said.

Both union and non-union employees will be affected by the changes, Sims said. Non-represented employees will lose $5 million in wages as the county plans to freeze step and merit increases and limit COLA to 3 percent.

Similar restrictions will be put in place for represented employees, Sims said, and the measures will save $11 million for the county. The executive has been meeting with labor leaders to discuss possible changes to both wages and benefits, but the two sides have yet to reach a final agreement.

The layoffs and wage caps will balance the budget, Sims said, but county residents will still see cuts in programs and services.

"We have been forced to make significant reductions in all areas of the General Fund. These cuts will have a substantial impact on King County's critical public safety, public health and human services program," he said.

Early Tuesday, Sims announced several methods through which he planned to cut spending, including moving his staff out of leased space in the Columbia Center into empty space in the county's Chinook Building at Fifth and Jefferson. This move alone, Sims said, will save the county $400,000 a year.

But the move to the Chinook building would be temporary, because the county council would ultimately like to have the executive's office in the same building with it.

Sims has already asked the sheriff, the prosecutor and the health department to each cut more than 11 percent from their budgets. Sheriff Sue Rahr said she will have to cut more than 100 deputies and staff.