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With payroll tax, recovery, and one (hopefully) final burst of federal pandemic aid, Durkan’s last budget: more cops, more affordable housing, more money for parks clean-ups

Smoke is still clearing from this year’s spending battles as Mayor Jenny Durkan unveiled her proposal Monday for Seattle’s 2022 budget that will frame the City Hall fiduciary skirmishes for the next two months with a status quo proposal boosted by temporary federal COVID-19 relief and the JumpStart payroll tax on the city largest companies. The few headline grabbing line items include proposed spending that would allow Seattle Police to grow its shrinking force by 35 officers and enough breathing room, the Durkan administration believes, to earmark $50 million in federal COVID-19 relief for the city to acquire new affordable housing instead of the emergency services the money was channeled to in 2021. Other proposed expenditures like $2.8 million to extend yet again a temporary clean-up “surge” in the city’s parks are also in the mix and signs of the challenges the city still faces as it tries to emerge from nearly two years of pandemic.

The proposal is the final budget process of Durkan’s term as the one-and-done mayor has decided not seek reelection after leading the city into, through, and under years of Black Lives Matter demonstrations, anti-police protests, and the ongoing pandemic.

“Over the last four years, I have focused much energy and action on our homelessness and housing crisis that was a generation in the making. All of us, including me, are frustrated that it feels like any progress we made on homelessness was erased by the pandemic,” Durkan said in her prepared statement on the 2022 budget proposal. “With thousands of unsheltered individuals in our streets and parks, a shortage of housing and not enough treatment services — there are no easy solutions. But with steady regional, state and federal action, there is real hope. Over the last year, we started building 1,300 homes for people experiencing homelessness. We’re finally moving to a regional approach to this regional crisis. This fall, we’ll open another 375 24/7 shelter spaces. That means we’ll have 3,000 shelter spaces next year to move more people off the streets into safer spaces while removing the most dangerous encampments. And in this budget, we will nearly double our investments in more affordable housing to 200 million dollars.”

The Seattle City Council will now begin the process of reshaping the Durkan proposal with Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda’s budget committee holding ongoing meetings and public hearings on October 12th and November 10th.

2022 budget proposal highlights:

  • Homelessness and housing: “Durkan also proposes to spend $115 million on the homelessness crisis — a vastly larger amount than what Seattle has historically spent on the issue, but smaller than the previous year’s budget. Most of these dollars would be earmarked for transfer to the new King County Regional Homelessness Authority, created to coordinate efforts throughout the county. A priority of Durkan’s time in office, the authority is only just now beginning operations after months of delay.” — Crosscut
  • Police: “Under the plan, the Police Department’s average officer count could grow to 1,230, assuming 125 officers are hired and 90 leave. Seattle’s budget this year included funding for 1,343 officers, but many spots are vacant due to rapid attrition and slow hiring.” — the Seattle Times
  • COVID-19: “As in 2020 and in 2021, this year’s budget proposal includes support from the federal government in addressing the costs of Covid related expenditures like mass testing and vaccinations. Under the proposal, Seattle will use the $116 million provided by the federal government for Covid assistance that has a ‘longer-term perspective’ that will provide a platform for a “more equitable recovery.” — KUOW
  • Parks: The Durkan administration is proposing a $2.8 million continuation of the “Clean City” program launched during the pandemic to help the city’s public spaces weather the intense use from encampments with boosted garbage pickup and services. Parks would spend another $1 million on “Security & Compliance” to “address issues related to cleanliness and safety at parks and beaches.”
  • Economy: Seattle City Hall’s sources for local revenue are recovering, especially real estate taxes and employment which has dropped to 5% from a high of 17% early in the pandemic. “The dramatic drop in employment and overall economic activity associated with the onset of the pandemic has eased, and the fiscal stimulus provided by the federal government has had the intended effect of promoting activity across the economy,” the city’s budget office reports.
  • Solidarity: The Solidarity Budget Coalition priorities for 2022 include major cuts on policing and prosecution: “This year’s solidarity budget also calls for a 50 percent cut to the criminal legal system, largely by cutting the total number of SPD officers to 750—roughly 300 fewer officers than the department currently employs. The proposal calls for eliminating SPD’s narcotics unit, cutting the special victims unit budget by half, eliminating the department’s public affairs unit, and moving the civilian Community Safety Officer program out of the department and into the new Community Safety and Communications Center (CSCC). The coalition also recommended cutting the budgets of the Municipal Court and the criminal division of the City Attorney’s Office by 50 percent. “While the Municipal Court and City Attorneys have begun to embrace non-incarceration and conviction approaches to misdemeanors,” the coalition wrote in their budget outline, ‘court and prosecutors are not social service agencies, and should not be the gateway to housing and treatment.'” — Publicola

Last year, the 2021 proposal from Durkan’s office was positioned as a “start” by her administration to respond to the Black Lives Matter movement and calls for defunding Seattle Police, as well as brutal cutbacks due to the economic fallout of the COVID-19 crisis. The council further shaped that “start,” pushing for larger cuts to policing, and the creation of new revenue with the $200 million a year-plus JumpStart payroll tax.

With stronger indicators of economic recovery from the pandemic still being mixed in with millions in federal support from the crisis, the city’s 2022 budget battle is being lined up to play out in a similar fashion. 2023 could be a whole different fight as recovery aid is likely to have dried up more completely.

The 2022 reshaping will be powered, in part, by the Solidarity Budget coalition including organizations like the Seattle Transit Riders Union and the Decriminalize Seattle group which has maintained its demand for a 50% reduction in SPD budget along with priorities like $85 million “to transition all low-income homes in our city to clean energy” and “an additional $100 million in green transportation priorities that speed up transit and make walking, rolling, and biking safer and more convenient.”

The city’s efforts to incorporate more community-led budgeting are hoped to continue in 2022. CHS reported here on the plans for the Office of Civil Rights to move forward on shaping Participatory Budgeting, one of the key demands from Black Lives Matter protests here. Durkan’s 2022 proposal mirrors the 2021 budget’s inclusion of $100 million for equity and community programs including about $10 million for non-police public safety programs.

Meanwhile, current City Council president Lorena González will balance leading the council to a final vote on the 2022 budget while battling former City Council Bruce Harrell to replace Durkan.

 

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Finfineman
Finfineman
2 years ago

This lady had been wrong on so many things. Her lack of leadership and waffling is historic. Go away. She doesn’t belong in a management role of any type. The reason she isn’t running for reelection is she knows it.