Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson has been in office for just over two months. It's her first-ever elected position. The self-described socialist and progressive defeated incumbent Mayor Bruce Harrell last November by just over 2,000 votes.
Wilson sat down with KNKX Morning Edition host Kirsten Kendrick to talk about how she's approaching her priorities, from housing to budget cuts.
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Transcript
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
KNKX's Kirsten Kendrick: Mayor, affordability is a top concern for many people who live in Seattle or those who want to but can't afford it. I asked people today at a bus stop, at a coffee shop, at a retail business, what they would want to ask you if they had the chance? And they all said: "How are you going to make living in Seattle more affordable?"
Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson: My administration is going to be tackling the affordability crisis on many fronts, right? There's not one answer.
I think that housing is really, really core. And even within housing, right, there's a number of strategies that we're going to be pursuing. One is social housing, right? We have this new social housing developer that's just gotten its first infusion of revenue from voter-approved tax on large businesses that was passed last year. Very excited about that. And so the city, my administration, is going to be doing everything we can to support the new social housing developer as it gets rolling — acquiring, developing this permanently affordable, publicly-owned mixed-income housing. So that is one thing that we're working on.
Also, I think there's more that we can do in our land use and zoning laws to allow the private market to build housing in neighborhoods around Seattle. And, you know, a big part of why housing is so unaffordable today is that our production of housing, our housing stock, has not kept pace with the growth of our region, so we just have too many people competing for too few homes. So that's another area that we're working on.
Stronger renter protections — we just finished up a survey on trying to understand some of the fees that renters are hit with, especially when you got a corporate landlord, and there's kind of the sticker price of your apartment, but then there's all these hidden fees. So I'm really excited to be working on legislation to regulate or ban a lot of those hidden fees.
And then finally, affordability for small businesses, right? It's really hard to open and operate a small business in Seattle, and so we're doing a lot of outreach to small businesses right now, trying to figure out how we can improve on the city's existing programs. And some of that is cutting red tape, right? A lot of the challenge of starting a small business is you have to interface with all these different these different agencies, levels of government. What can we do to make that process easier and cheaper?
Kendrick: You're mentioning small businesses. And a recent survey of more than 130 small businesses in Seattle found that many are struggling more than they did during the height of the pandemic. The survey also found foot traffic is down, costs are going up. So what are some specific ways that you are focusing on small businesses and helping them? And what have they told you when you're talking about these issues?
Wilson: Yeah. So one piece is, just as I mentioned, kind of the difficulty of starting, and all the different permits that you have to juggle and and costs related to that. But another big thing is really homelessness and public safety, right? And when you talk about foot traffic being down, one of the things we can really do to help make our neighborhood business districts more vibrant, and just help with that stream of customers that the business is relying on to stay afloat, is really meaningfully addressing our homelessness crisis and the kind of public safety problems that come along with very high rates of unsheltered homelessness.
I would say that is the number-one priority of my administration, and we're gearing up right now to rapidly expand emergency housing and shelter. And I think a really important piece of that, which is really relevant to the struggles that small businesses are facing, is recognizing that, as we do that, it's not just a matter of places to put people, right? Like, we need to really pay attention to people's needs. And a lot of folks who are chronically homeless have deep needs related to mental illness, related to substance use disorder. And so we need to make sure that we are providing those wrap-around services and that support so that as we're bringing people inside, they're going to be successful there. They're not going to be cycling back out into homelessness.
We're also going to be creating opportunities for individuals, volunteers to pitch in and help, right? This is really something that I want the whole city to come together around, and I really think there is that hunger for action that makes a difference. And so I really hope that everyone around the city can see that this is a common project and just something where we all need to make this our highest priority.
Kendrick: The city also has a budget deficit of an estimated $140 million going into 2027, and I was wondering how much of that do you plan to make up with new revenue versus cutting costs?
Wilson: The city has had this structural budget deficit for years. So this is not a surprise. It's something where there's been a lot of, like, kicking the can down the road and kind of doing one-time fixes. I really want to solve that structural problem so that we're not facing this problem year after year. And I think that's going to mean a combination of new revenue and looking really hard at what the city is funding and making some hard choices, right?
And, you know, we've asked departments to look at what it would look like to do a 5% or 10% reduction. Obviously, we don't want to do that right. And part of this exercise is really understanding what are all the programs and services that the city is funding, what is their value to residents? Really doing a frank assessment.
Wilson told KNKX the city will need new sources of revenue, and said she is looking at new progressive taxes.
Wilson: I've talked about a potential local capital gains tax that would layer on top of the state capital gains tax as an option that we will be looking at.
Kendrick: Washington state currently has a 7% tax on profits from the sale of stocks, bonds and other high-end financial assets.
Wilson: You know, I also do understand that for businesses, it's very important that we're making sure that the city is a good environment to do business in. And it's not great when our business environment in Seattle is, like, wildly different in terms of, you know, taxes and operating costs compared to a neighboring city like Bellevue, because it does begin to create that calculus for companies where it's like, "Well, where do I want to locate?"
Kendrick: Speaking of operating a business in the city, open drug use is still an issue, specifically in places like 12th and Jackson and Little Saigon and 3rd and Pike downtown. Can you give some specific examples of how the city is working to reduce open drug use?
Wilson: With our police, I think the goal is to have a more consistent, on-the-ground police presence in some of these areas that can kind of prevent those hot spots from from forming. So we're working with SPD on how we can make that happen.
Kendrick: So I wanted to also ask you about surveillance cameras. In your first State of the City address you said you wanted to take a measured approach to the use of these cameras in the city. How are you feeling about them right now?
Wilson: This is another complex and rightfully controversial issue, right? So during the campaign, I repeatedly expressed concerns about the planned expansion of our CCTV cameras in the context of potential ICE surges and, you know, just kind of federal misuse of data. What my team has been doing is really digging in to try to understand the way that our current system — our CCTV camera, Real Time Crime Center — work, the way that we're holding and storing that data.
And so we're learning, right? Part of this is about transparency and about openness with the public about, like, here are policies. Here's the way that this data is being kept. Here are the risks. And, you know, there might be risks, and we might still decide that it's, you know, on balance, something that we should be doing. Really trying to do due diligence and to understand both the real risks that exist in terms of federal, you know, access to and misuse — potentially — of that data. But also, yeah, what are we getting out of these cameras that potentially we don't want to lose — we would lose if we just shut them all down.
Kendrick: Speaking of the potential for federal misuse, residents may be concerned that Seattle will be the next to be in the crosshairs of the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. What is your plan to respond if thousands of federal agents are sent to Seattle the way they were dispatched to Minneapolis?
Wilson: So internally, we've really been kind of running scenarios and making sure that we are as prepared as we can be to respond. And just being in really close communication with stakeholders, with the county government, with the state, with the attorney general's office. And then also with our immigrants rights organizations and all the community groups that are doing that hard work on the ground of rapid response and trying to protect their communities.
I also did a directive to SPD so that they really understand their role as one of protecting our residents. And also, a member of my team actually went to Minneapolis as part of a group to really spend time with some of the organizations there that have been involved in, you know, the community response and so really trying to learn from their experience and bring those lessons back here. Yeah.
