The Seattle City Council headed into the Thanksgiving holiday with a busy Tuesday session with votes finalizing the 2024 budget, nixing a possible new development impact fee to pay for transportation and street projects, and throwing support behind a modified resolution from Kshama Sawant’s office calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

• BUDGET: The full council approved the final 2024 City of Seattle budget after its amendment process moved more money to affordable housing and bumped up the JumpStart payroll tax a nudge to increase funding for mental health services for students by $20 million. Budget chair Teresa Mosqueda marked her final budget at City Hall as she will move to the King County Council following her election in November. Sawant continued her annual protest vote as she cast the lone “no” on the compromise package in what was also her final budget process after a decade serving the city.
• IMPACT FEE: In a 5-4 vote, the council opted not to open the way for a possible development impact fee, voting down a proposal that would have amended the city’s comprehensive plan to allow fees on new construction to pay for things like transportation projects or parks. Tuesday’s proposal would have only changed the plan to allow such a fee — not implemented it — but it was seen as a possible prelude to the debate upcoming next year on shaping a replacement for the $930 million dollar property tax levy to fund transportation projects that will expire in 2025. Mosqueda, Sara Nelson, Dan Strauss, Andrew Lewis, and Tammy Morales voted against the fee.
• GAZA RESOLUTION: Sawant celebrated adoption of a modified version of her resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. “This resolution sends an important message to the Biden administration and the US ruling class—this massacre of the Palestinian people must end. But it didn’t happen without a fight,” Sawant said in a statement. “Just two weeks ago, on November 7th, not a single Democrat agreed to ‘second’ our motion for a vote on our cease-fire resolution. Democrats thought they could dispense with it but our movement tenaciously fought back.” CHS reported here on Sawant’s second crack at a resolution following a previous vote that found no supporters among Sawant’s counterparts. This week, a modified version of the resolution found wider support thanks to a so-called “common ground” amendment that “underscores the Council’s support for the people of both Israel and Palestine to live in peace and security,” a council press release read. Sawant called the vote a “historic victory” but did not echo the sentiments of the amended resolution. “What we won today is a reflection of the balance of forces right now, and it shows we need an even stronger movement in order to address the root causes of the conflict,” she said, “the Israeli occupation and the US military aid that facilitates the brutalization of the Palestinian people.”

2/2 this is who they are afraid to face. Here’s a section of the 400+ people who took time off from work, school, family to talk directly to councilmembers about the need to pass a strong ceasefire resolution. Shamefully, the Democrats are not even showing up. pic.twitter.com/fNrkYLcBku

— Jonathan Rosenblum (@jonathan4212) November 22, 2023

PLEASE HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE!
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.