Cash from the Real Estate Excise Tax will go to library upgrades and “Re-Imagined Spaces” across the city — including the Capitol Hill branch (Image: J Brew via Flickr)
The City Council is slated to adopt the city’s 2015-2016 budget on Monday. Earlier this month the council’s budget committee added some spending items to Mayor Ed Murray’s budget before unanimously passing it on to a full council vote, so don’t expect too many tweaks ahead of Monday’s final vote. To continue the theme of the original Murray package, Seattle’s new boom times mean growth not cuts. The council followed suit with most effort in the past few weeks spent on adding line items, not cutting. The council meeting starts at 2 PM.
In all, the council added $8.6 million worth of 2015 spending items onto Murray’s budget. To put that in perspective, the total package tallies more than $4.8 billion. The most notable additions are two items that affect city workers: Accelerate the $15 minimum wage hike to 2015 for all city workers ($810,000 in 2015) and offer paid parental leave for all city workers ($250,000 for 2015).
The council also added $200,000 to hire investigators for the newly created Office of Labor Standards, which will enforce the city’s minimum wage and paid sick time laws. It also ponied up with $1.7 million to help nonprofits comply with the minimum wage law.
The council’s additions also include a $1 million commitment to a proposed regional Transit Oriented Development fund and $50,000 to support reforms to the city’s design review process.
A few more items of note:
- $100,000 for transitional encampments
- $300,000 for mobile domestic violence advocates
- $50,000 to expand Pronto! to southeast Seattle
- $150,000 for Homeless Youth Street Outreach
Find the full budget and lots of related documents here.
In September CHS wrote about Murray’s plan to push for the hiring of 50 new SPD officers to join the 1,300 already serving the city with a goal to add 100 officers before the end of his term.
Murray’s full budget included millions of dollars in spending for citywide public safety and affordable housing efforts. We wrote about many of those items in September, in addition to a few specific items directly affecting Capitol Hill:
- Continued investment in the Capitol Hill Construction Hub
- Broadened use of the Central Area Equity Fund
- Extending the bike sharing to the Central District in 2015
- Improvements to the 23rd Ave corridor
- Interior improvements to the Capitol Hill Library
The mayor’s budget also removes $45,000 of funding for the Capitol Hill EcoDistrict, which would’ve been used to create a set of performance metrics for the initiative to push green development and environmental programs in the area. Joel Sisolack, project director for the EcoDistrict, said the district activities will push on without the funding.
[…] Starting January 12th, will get new carpeting and some needed upgrades to its stairs along with some other housekeeping. CHS noted the project in the City of Seattle’s 2015 budget among a roster of Capitol Hill line items. […]
[…] City Council approved the budget plan with the Pronto bucks […]