SEATTLE — Seattle City Council passed its $8.3 billion budget needed to fill a $251 million gap Thursday during a meeting.
The gap came in the General Fund, the $1.9 billion account that elected officials have the most control over. To fill it came with a controversial plan that started in Mayor Bruce Harrell’s office and was refined by the city council in the months since Harrell put it forward.
The city will now divert some revenue from the Jump Start Payroll Expense tax to fill the rest of the budget’s gaps. The tax dedicated specific amounts of revenue for climate projects, affordable housing, equitable development, and economic development. The move created a coalition of 22 groups and a couple of city council members in opposition, insisting the city leave the tax be.
“This action disregards the overwhelming feedback expressed during public comment,” a letter from the groups read after the council’s vote.
When passed in 2020, JumpStart was estimated to bring in $219 million. The estimated revenue in 2025 is $430 million on top of $90 million in one-time revenue funds. Seven councilors approved moving $287 million to fill holes in the budget while keeping $233 for the original purposes.
The vote; however, removed the oversight committee tasked with watching over the money. The committee had yet to meet, and the Coalition of Organizations Against this vote said Harrell’s failure to appoint members to it prevented the committee from ever carrying out its responsibilities.
“Seattle residents should be deeply troubled by the lack of transparency, accountability, and public oversight of this major revenue stream and its uses,” the letter read.
Passage of the budget created a sunset of the JumpStart tax in 2040 and left the legal door open to raid the fund in future years.
“As the cost of housing skyrockets in this city, working people are forced to move or leave Seattle because there is not enough housing,” Carly, a member of Workers Strike Back, said in their Thursday testimony. “This is not the time to reallocate these funds in your budget, this is the time to ask Amazon and other big businesses for more money.”
Council member and budget chair, Dan Strauss points to the fact city council has used the fund as a stopgap each year since its inception.
“What’s different this year is the COVID relief funding is running out and we had a downturn forecast mid budget cycle,” Strauss said.
Strauss expects the revenue problem to continue as the city adjusts from a rapidly growing 2010s to a more moderate rate of growth so far in the 2020s.
“The high inflation that everyday Seattlities are feeling is the main driver of the city’s budget deficit in many ways. There’s no way to grow our way out of this, there’s no way to cut our way out of this. What it’s going to require is a continued step-down approach to budget sustainability. We took a really big step this year,” Strauss said.
Even with the cuts to jump-start, the council’s budget dedicated a record $342 million for affordable housing development. It adds funding for positions, training and recruitment for new firefighters and paramedics. It also dedicates more money to the city to pay for jail services at the South Correctional Facility in Des Moines.
Council President Sara Nelson said that Seattle police expects to finally recruit more officers than it lost in 2024 and the budget adds 14 positions for investigative support to the department, as well as adding 18 cameras around schools in Seattle, doubling the reach of those kinds of cameras.
The budget documents will now go to Harrel for a final signature.
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