By Erica C. Barnett
I filled in as a guest host on this week’s “News, Views, and Brews” podcast hosted by Brian Callanan, and I highly recommend it if you’re looking for a high-level look at Mayor Bruce Harrell’s proposed budget for the next couple of years.
The budget proposal represents a wholesale change in how the JumpStart employer payroll tax—which taxes large tech and other businesses to pay for affordable housing and programs to boost equity in Seattle—is used by the city. Instead of primarily funding programs that offset the increased cost of living in a booming tech hub, Harrell and the council plan to use JumpStart as an all-purpose money spigot, repurposing the majority of its revenues for police, fire, transportation, and anything else that needs funding.
PubliCola is supported entirely by readers like you.
CLICK BELOW to become a one-time or monthly contributor.
Brian and I discussed the risks and impact of repurposing JumpStart to pay for anything and everything, getting into the (important!) weeds about the city’s dubious numbers. (In short, by using a conservative early estimate as the baseline for spending on affordable housing, green jobs, and other programming areas for which JumpStart was earmarked, and increasing it by a fictitious 2.5 percent inflation rate every year, the city is ensuring that funding for these programs erodes steadily year after year.)
We also got into the details of what the mayor’s budget plunders JumpStart, and cuts programs like the Seattle Channel, to fund—two new jail contracts, police emphasis patrols at perennial Seattle “hot spots,” and 24/7 remote camera surveillance of neighborhoods across the city.
Listen to the end to hear me talk about “panic canning”!
Tacomee, I agree about the current council and mayor being beholden only to voters and Publicola wouldn’t be doing the story justice if they didn’t explain what the current council and mayor are doing. I don’t believe that this council has the mandate they think they do for many of their rollbacks, but we’ll see.
Gosh, I don’t still don’t think you Lefties get it. The Seattle mayor makes the budget. City Council approve the budget. These are elected officials we have entrusted to spend our tax money. The Jump Start tax wasn’t passed by the current City government. Why should they fallow the spending guidelines preposed by a Council no longer in office? The political reality is no current council gives a crap about what the last bunch wanted.
You’re also missing the big picture here. Let’s say a new, more Lefty council and mayor are elected in the future. Do they need to respect the spending and programs Harrell has put in place? Jump Start is just tax revue the current City government can spend any way they like. There’s no legal “earmarks” put on by a bunch of council members who lost the last election. Otherwise why in Hell do we need to have elections?
Jump Start Tax, Green New Deal, Social housing….. come up with as many big Liberal ideas as you want. Nobody in Seattle will oppose them! But mark my words…. Nobody in Seattle is actually going to fund those goofy ideas either.