Kshama Sawant knows who her successor will be on a shifted Seattle City Council. This week, the veteran District 3 leader is hoping to shepherd forward a few last key initiatives including millions of dollars for mental health services in the city’s educational programs and millions more for sustaining the city’s ability to boost wages for its workers as she makes her final pass through the city’s budget process before she prepares to leave office at the end of the year.

The Seattle City Council meets Monday to begin finalizing an amendment package with more than 120 items as it works to rebalance Mayor Bruce Harrell’s 2024 proposals. You can view the full slate of proposed 2024 amendments and voting results here.

Sawant’s core push in the amendment process comes with some of the positioning the city has grown to expect from its firebrand socialist councilmember. The amendments she has put her muscle behind this fall would increase the JumpStart tax on Seattle’s largest companies by $20 million to fund “K-12 educational supports, prioritizing services that improve mental health outcomes” and another $40 million to support wage growth for city employees. In her message to supporters, Sawant, of course, refers to JumpStart as the “Amazon tax” while also tossing yet another barb at the Democratic party.

“Amazon just tripled its profits. Other big corporations also have reported record profits,” Sawant writes in the message calling for support at Monday’s public budget hearing. “These big corporations can easily pay a small amount more in our city’s Amazon Tax so that public sector workers and public school students can get their basic needs met.”

The council’s budget process must now be “self-balancing.” “That means when an amendment proposes new spending, it will have to explain how it will be funded – either by identifying new revenue or by taking money from somewhere else,” a council brief on the process reads.

CHS reported here council budget chair Teresa Mosqueda’s base rebalancing package that pushes back on the Harrell administration’s attempts to divert more and more of the more than $200 million in JumpStart revenue away from the program’s original goals around service and housing.

Sawant is also headed out of office with one last punch at the Harrell administration’s attempts to pump up public safety spending beyond adding more officers to the department. Sawant’s sponsored amendment to axe funding for a new gunfire detection system by moving $1.5 million from the Seattle Police Department to fund “behavioral health services, case management and operational costs at existing non-congregate shelters.”

The Harrell administration had once again included the funding for the system in its budget proposal despite opposition that nixed the plan last year after a big push by ShotSpotter backers who say the detection system would help law enforcement react more quickly to gun incidents in the city.

A final public hearing on the council’s budget package is slated for Monday November 13th at 5 PM with votes wrapping up on the amendments this week. You can learn more and follow the process on the Seattle City Council Budget Dashboard.

UPDATE 11/15/2023: The push for $20 million from a JumpStart increase to fund student mental health services passed but the larger $40 million increase for city worker wages was nixed by Sawant’s fellow councilmembers. They also decided to back the mayor’s plans for gunshot detection technology and denied Sawant’s bid to move the funding out of SPD.

CORRECTION: When first posted, this story erroneously included details from last year’s council budget amendments. It has been corrected and updated throughout.

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