The finish line is in sight for the Seattle City Council’s two-month budget process, which began when Mayor Bruce Harrell released his proposed $8.3 billion budget in September and will end when the Councilmembers take a final vote on the amended budget next week.
On Tuesday evening, the Council held the second of two public hearings to solicit community feedback on the budget. Nearly 200 Seattleites testified in Council chambers or remotely during a five-hour meeting.
Commenters were there mostly to advocate for or against specific amendments proposed by the Council. The lengthy hearing covered a huge range of topics, but a significant portion of the public testimony centered on taxes, public safety, homelessness, housing and investment in the Central District.
The public testimony gives a glimpse into how Seattleites — or at least those willing to wait through five hours of public meeting on a weeknight — want leaders to prioritize city spending. Here are some key themes from Tuesday night:
Protect the Jumpstart payroll tax
“Hands off Jumpstart” has been a rallying cry for homelessness and affordable-housing advocates, climate activists and human-services workers for the past several years.
The four-year-old payroll expense tax on large Seattle businesses has outperformed revenue projections each year, and as such has been a key backstop against deeper cuts as the city has grappled with budget deficits in the wake of the pandemic.
This year, Harrell upped the use of Jumpstart money to balance the budget, proposing to transfer $287 million of the tax revenues into the general fund to shore up a more than $250 million budget deficit and help pay for new spending. In addition, the mayor proposed legislation that would permanently remove restrictions on how Jumpstart revenues may be spent.
Along with creating the new tax, the prior Council set spending categories for the proceeds: 62% dedicated to affordable housing, 15% to economic development, 9% to climate projects, 9% for community-led development and 5% for administrative costs.
On Tuesday, many commenters testified in favor of protecting the spending categories as is and limiting the transfer of revenues to the general fund.
“Diverting funds from affordable housing, economic opportunities, summer youth employment will only worsen these inequities, keep more people in the street and create the very conditions that fuel crime and unsafe communities,” said K. Wyking Garrett, CEO of Africatown Community Land Trust, on Tuesday. “It’s really not acceptable, and we say do not permanently divert this funding to balance the budget and reject any legislation that would change the spending plan without more public process.”
Councilmember Dan Strauss, who chairs the Select Budget Committee, introduced legislation modifying the mayor’s proposal. It keeps in place the spending categories and percentages but makes them non-binding guidelines instead of mandatory amounts. In addition, Strauss’ bill would eliminate Jumpstart’s planned sunset after 20 years and keep the tax in place permanently.
Councilmembers Tammy Morales and Cathy Moore each introduced amendments to modify Strauss’ proposal.
Morales’ amendment would require 20% of Jumpstart revenues to be directed to the general fund, 10% for a reserve fund and the remaining 70% spent on the original spend category areas.
Moore’s amendment would redirect 45% of Jumpstart proceeds to the general fund, with the remaining 55% dedicated only to affordable housing. She argued that the city has a legal mandate to build affordable housing under the state Growth Management Act, whereas there’s no legal mandate to spend on the other categories, however important.
Prior to the public hearing Tuesday, a group of advocates held a press conference opposing Harrell’s Jumpstart diversion plan. They argued the city needs to maximize its investments in affordable housing, homelessness response and climate to move the needle on the crises, and should instead impose new progressive taxes to address the budget shortfall. Representatives from 350 Seattle, Puget Sound Sage, the Green New Deal Oversight Board, the Downtown Emergency Services Center, the Chief Seattle Club, the Multicultural Community Coalition and the Housing Development Consortium participated.
Fully fund tenant education and rental assistance
Many community members testified Tuesday in support of restoring full funding to tenant outreach and legal services and to emergency rental assistance. Harrell’s budget proposal would halve funding for outreach, education and legal services from about $2.5 million to $1.2 million and emergency rental assistance from $1 million to $527,000.
Amendments from Moore and Morales would restore funding for tenant services. Moore also introduced an amendment to increase rental assistance funding to $3.3 million in 2025.
“Don’t pit rental assistance against tenant services. We need both,” said Tanya Moore, co-director of Be:Seattle, a nonprofit for renter education and organizing. “In order for tenants to remain stably housed, rental assistance is crucial. But without tenant services to educate renters, rental assistance is a stopgap and will not help people remain housed.”
Invest more in the Central District
Central District residents came out in support of several amendments from Councilmember Joy Hollingsworth that would direct money to housing, recreation, youth and arts and culture projects in Seattle’s historically Black neighborhood.
One amendment would help pay for the planned “Garfield Super Block” project that will renovate Garfield Playfield at 23rd Avenue and E. Cherry Street adjacent to Garfield High School. Decades in the works, the project will build a new pedestrian promenade, add restrooms and concession facilities, replace play structures, overhaul the sports facilities and install new public art.
Another amendment from Hollingsworth would redirect $10 million from the community-led participatory budgeting fund toward Central District arts and culture programming and youth programming; efforts by the Office of Housing to help longtime homeowners avoid economic displacement; and a day center for youth.
“A direct fiscal investment can positively impact organizations that contribute to the daily well-being of each of us, and is the best way to ensure the Black community continues to be a vibrant part of the fabric of this city,” said Lois Martin, a longtime Central District resident and director of the Community Day Center for Children.
Public safety and transportation changes in West Seattle
Harbor Alki Neighbors, a group of 170 homeowners, renters and business owners along Alki Beach in West Seattle, have long been sounding the alarm about street racing, gun violence and related late-night problems in their neighborhood.
Several representatives from the group testified Tuesday in support of amendments from Councilmember Rob Saka to spend $1.18 million to install speed enforcement cameras along Harbor and Alki avenues and $175,000 to make changes to the on-street parking where groups currently gather.
A group of residents from Delridge also came to testify Tuesday in support of Saka’s $2 million amendment to revamp a section of Delridge Avenue Southwest in order to remove a concrete median that prevents left turns into and out of businesses along the street.
Protecting city jobs
When Harrell unveiled his budget proposal in September, he touted the fact that it mostly spared city workers from layoffs despite the significant budget deficit. But mostly was not none, and 76 positions in Human Resources, Information Technology, Construction and Inspections, and Finance and Administration departments are going to be cut.
Several city workers testified Tuesday to either make the case for their positions or voice support for an amendment from Strauss that would extend employment for city workers facing layoffs by an additional six months to ease the transition.
Ted Demin, a land use planner in the Department of Construction and Inspections, testified in favor of Strauss’ extension, but also asked the Council to consider restoring funding for planner positions, arguing that they’re important for helping building construction permits move quickly through the process.
Nicolasa Hernandez was one of a handful of naturalists, environmental educators and park stewards from the Department of Parks and Recreation who attended the hearing to voice disappointment that their positions are set to be eliminated in 2026.
Rita Gray, a member of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa Tribe, leads Seattle’s newly created Tribal Nations Training Program. It is housed within the HR Department, which is set to lose its Learning and Development Division, Workforce Development Union and Equity Performance Management Program through Harrell’s budget cuts. She too testified in support of the amendment to delay layoffs and expressed her personal distress over the financial impact of losing her job.
“While I am truly devastated by losing this project as it is a critical piece to tribal and urban native relations, I am also extremely stressed and overwhelmed for personal reasons,” said Gray.
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