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This year, Sawant has company in annual Seattle budget ‘no’ votes

Seattle Channel: 11/28/22 Budget Committee

Kshama Sawant is not alone in 2022 in her yearly dissent against Seattle City Hall’s annual budget compromises.

Monday, the socialist city council member and longest serving member of the body cast a vote against the compromise 2023 budget package in a procedural committee vote ahead of Tuesday afternoon’s final vote on the proposed spending plan by the full council. She was joined by unlikely collaborators —  citywide representative Sara Nelson and U District, View Ridge, Wallingford, and Wedgwood rep Alex Pedersen — in voting no on the package.

The budget proposal still moved forward on the 6-3 vote.

When it comes to these final votes, the District 3 representative for Capitol Hill and the Central District has made a tradition over the years of standing up against the compromise packages she has helped forge.

This year, Sawant is criticizing the final package for what her office calls its “austerity” measures and the council’s unwillingness to increase the JumpStart tax on the city’s largest employers. CHS reported here on other Sawant office initiatives as part of her annual People’s Budget rally.

Pedersen and Nelson, meanwhile, are making what is likely to end up a toothless stand on public safety. “I cannot in good conscience endorse a final budget that fails to learn from recent public policy mistakes on public safety and fall short on public safety for a third year in a row,” Pedersen said.

As Publicola reports, Pedersen and Nelson’s no votes come even as the council’s final budget proposal will fund the hiring plan championed by the Seattle Police Department and Mayor Bruce Harrell, using savings from vacant SPD positions to provide the department with an additional $17 million a year to pay for recruitment and retention.

The Urbanist has more on the last minute outburst of politics in the 2023 Seattle budget process and the possibilities around the compromise blowing up.

CHS reported here on the council’s final tweaks to the 2023 budget that council budget chair Teresa Mosqueda called an “anti-austerity” approach to “keeping our community cared for and housed, connected and resilient, and healthy and safe” despite a predicted downturn in city tax revenues. In addition to keeping SPD’s hiring and retention plans intact, Harrell will also have full funding for his plan for a new Unified Care Team that will help maintain “clean and accessible Seattle neighborhoods, parks, and open spaces” including sweeping encampments and clearing tents from public spaces like parks.

As the budget makes it final vote on the 2023 package Tuesday afternoon, many will be watching Sawant’s decision.

Last fall as she faced an ultimately failed recall attempt, Sawant continued her long-running practice of voting against the final spending package, blasting budget chair Mosqueda for spinning the numbers, saying she could not join the council’s efforts when “the police budget is actually growing.”

This year, another 6-3 vote by the full council would still move the budget forward but Sawant will need to decide if she wants to side with councilmembers making a stand for more public safety and police funding.

 

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