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The first public hearing session is slated to begin Tuesday, October 11th at 5 PM. You can register to be part of public comment remotely via phone or in-person at City Hall. Visit seattle.gov for information about the public comment process.
The session will stretch on for hours. “Budget public hearings last until the final person signed up for comment has spoken,” one councilmember’s message to constituents reads. “If it takes four hours to get there, that’s how long we’ll be listening!”
CHS reported here on the budget proposal from Mayor Bruce Harrell and its steps back on Seattle reforms including spending to create a larger SPD and a controversial new plan for how to redirecting funding from the city’s big business tax from COVID-19 recovery, housing, and the Green New Deal to patching up the city’s general fund.
Beginning Tuesday morning, the council will begin weeks of deliberation and debate over department by department spending plans including public safety and human services that will include proposals for changes, cuts, and additions to the Harrell plan. Two more public hearings with public comment will also follow.
A centerpiece in the debate will be Harrell’s proposal to restore SPD’s budget back to $375 million — up $20 million from the current budget — by abandoning a compromise reform from the “Defund SPD” debate and transferring parking enforcement back to police control. More debate will come over Harrell’s plan that would provide around $88 million for the King County Regional Homelessness Authority, a nearly 13% increase but still less than the organization was calling for.
Meanwhile, most other departments will face cutbacks and belt tightening with economic forecasts projecting an estimated $140 million budget gap.
To help bridge this deficit and larger possible gaps ahead, Harrell has asked the council to change the rules for the city’s JumpStart payroll tax on its largest employers to allow City Hall to dip into the revenue to patch up Seattle’s general fund. The tax, launched in 2021, was intended to fund pandemic recovery, solutions for homelessness and housing, and Green New Deal initiatives.
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Subscribe to CHS to help us pay writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for as little as $5 a month.
