If you are worried about Seattle defunding the police, a few data points from Wednesday’s session (PDF) of the Seattle City Council’s budget committee should set your mind at ease.
As the city grapples with a “pessimistic” revenue forecast, Mayor Bruce Harrell’s administration is holding the line at two separate thresholds for cutbacks to city departments.
When it comes to the 2026 budget, City Hall is preparing for planned 8% cuts to departments supported by the city’s General Fund and payroll tax on its largest employers. The Seattle Police Department and all “public safety related” departments number? 2%. Same for the city’s spending on homelessness.
The preparations for cutbacks come as the city’s spring revenue forecasts have Seattle looking at a more than $240 million deficit through 2025 and 2026. Harrell has mostly approached the problem with hiring freezes, planned cutbacks, and belt-tightening.
Since the April forecast revision, the city has frozen spending on non-essential travel or training expenses, spending on new contracts, and extended a hiring freeze, officials say.
Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck, meanwhile, has said she will be “working to review progressive revenue options “to address the budget challenges and funding cuts facing Seattle.” Rinck leads the council’s Select Committee on Federal Administration and Policy Changes.
The city’s downturned forecasts have come in part from recent chaos from the cuts and threatened cuts under the second Trump administration. But the challenges began even before Trump took office. A city audit revealed nearly 80% of Seattle’s previous $1.7 billion budget increase in recent years was due to inflation and soaring wages. New programs accounted for only 19% of the jump with the remaining two percent of spending being powered by one-time revenue injections like federal aid during the pandemic.
The city’s strongest source of “alternative revenue” has also proven to be unsuitable as a core plank of a city budget. CHS reported here on the boom and bust cycle of the city’s JumpStart tax on payrolls at its largest employers.
An updated revenue forecast will be announced in August.
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