Last year, right before announcing how he planned to make $93 million in cuts, then-King County Executive Ron Sims walked down the row of council members, hugging each one. Things aren’t much better for the county this year. Kurt Triplett, Sims’ replacement through November, needed to hack another $56 million out of the budget. So naturally, there was only one thing to do. Hug everybody. Triplett did just that then declared that three county clinics will close, bus service will be cut and 145 people will be getting pink slips if the county council approves the budget two months from now. (Triplett proposes to cut 367 positions, but many are already vacant.) As well, three clinics are slated to close and parks in unincorporated areas will be left to grow wild. But so far, Triplett’s budget is getting a much better reception than Sims’ did last year. Superior Court Presiding Judge Bruce Hilyer was so incensed by Sims’ cuts, he joined several council members at a press conference immediately after Sims’ budget speech to blast him. But this year, Hilyer sat quietly taking notes at a post-speech press conference, saying only that he would give his reaction to the budget at a council budget committee meeting Wednesday morning. Unlike Sims who started off his budget speech by declaring it “perfect,” Triplett made a point of saying: “As tempted as I am to do so, I cannot call this a perfect budget.” Triplett managed to salvage the Sheriff, Prosecutor and Courts from the deep cuts they took last year, in part by moving some cash around. This year, the state legislature gave Triplett the ability to take money from a tax that was supposed to be used only for creating new mental health programs and use it to keep things like the existing drug and mental health courts alive. He also plans to get out of the animal control business entirely.One striking similarity between Triplett’s budget and Sims’ is an element of hope. Sims managed to dodge even deeper (and politically dangerous) cuts by coming up with a lifeboat plan. Basically he funded things like mental health court, a dental program for kids and investigations into the spread of infectious disease (like swine flu) for an additional six months to a year. Then he went to Olympia and threatened to cut them if the state legislature didn’t provide additional funding sources and the unions didn’t agree to take 10 days off unpaid. He got the 10 days and Olympia gave the flexibility to save Mental Health Court, but he didn’t get any of the new taxes needed to keep everything afloat and that dental program for low-income kids died. This year, Triplett avoided doing anything quite so drastic in terms of wishin’ and hopin’, but he did slip in one bit of similar future-looking budgeting. He avoided making $6.5 million in additional cuts on the assumption that the county will shut down for another 10 days. But the unions have been hesitant to take the time off again this year.Triplett has said in the past he has the authority to force additional unpaid time off. But in his speech today, he says: “If we cannot soon reach agreement on these savings with our unions, I will be sending to the Council specific additional reductions for these amounts before the end of October.” Triplett did not clarify what might be on the line if the unions don’t agree to take the time off. This year’s hugs back seemed far more genuine. There will be some fighting over things like putting parks in the budget rather than hoping cities or nonprofits will get the park land for free on condition of keeping it a park. But everyone’s talking cuts, so anyone who thinks they might be one of those 145 people may want to start dusting off their resume now. Maybe Triplett will give them all a hug on the way out.