King County Elections reports Seattle turnout has barely climbed over 15%
Tuesday’s Special Election is set to be decided by a relatively tiny subset of voters making key decisions on the future of social housing and school funding in the city.
King County Elections reports Seattle turnout has climbed just over 15% for the February ballot due Tuesday night by 8 PM.
The tally is typical for winter special election votes but a massive drop from November’s strong turnout above 85% for the presidential election.
Seattle voters are facing a couple big decisions on housing and schools.
Propositions 1A and 1B will decide if the city will add a new Seattle Social Housing payroll tax as a proposal from housing advocates and a competing proposal form the Seattle City Council appear on the ballot. Voters face two questions when filling in the bubbles — 1) Should either of these proposals be approved? and 2) Which one?
The Let’s Build Social Housing ballot Initiative 137 would add a 5% tax on companies for every dollar over a million paid to a Seattle employee in annual compensation including salary, stock, and bonuses to fund the city’s new public Social Housing Developer. The House our Neighbors group behind the salary tax proposal says it would add up to around $50 million a year to fund the development authority and power its ability to borrow to build or acquire 2,000 units of housing over 10 years.
A Seattle City Council-backed alternative is limited. It would not create a new tax and would move $10 million in funding from the existing JumpStart payroll tax already available to affordable housing programs to the new Social Housing Developer program. There would be important restraints — Under the proposition, JumpStart funding would limit the Social Housing Developer to offering affordable housing to only the city’s lowest income levels, a restriction social housing advocates say undermines the purpose of the program and hopes of creating affordable housing across multiple tiers of income.
The February ballot also includes a vote on replacing two expiring levies to fund Seattle Public Schools.
The new proposed operations levy would provide SPS with $747 million to pay its faculty and staff while the new capital levy proposal weighs in at around $1.8 billion to help the district construct new buildings and facilities.
Voters will consider each levy replacement proposal separately with yes/no votes on each.
While the city’s voters have typically enthusiastically backed school spending in past votes, the new ballot arrives fresh after a tense reversal by the district on a school closure plan that has bolstered criticism of the state’s largest school system.
Looming over all of this are the increasing challenges to local budgets presented by the state’s 1% cap on levy revenues. The complicated restriction limits the total revenue collected in property tax to 1% annually leaving local governments scrambling to keep up with inflation.
2025 will bring a swarm of local election decisions — and likely higher turnout.
Last week, Seattle Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck announced she was launching her re-election bid to retain her citywide seat on the council.
Seattle City Council president Sara Nelson will face a battle to keep her seat on the council. Newly appointed Mark Solomon, selected to replace Tammy Morales, said he would not take part in the election to select a permanent District 2 representative.
Mayor Bruce Harrell has announced he is seeking a second term, launching his reelection campaign with themes around “common values,” “public safety solutions,” and “proven leadership to stand up for our values.”
City Attorney Ann Davison has also launched her re-election campaign.
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