By Erica C. Barnett
As I noted earlier today on Bluesky, it’s past time for Seattle leaders to be running around with their hair on fire. Not only are federal policies contributing to a shortfall in local revenues, direct cuts are just starting to hit programs that serve people across the county—from nonprofits that provide shelter, housing, and health care to people experiencing or at risk of homelessness to groups that provide legal and other critical services to immigrants and refugees.
Less than three months in, the second Trump Administration has already decimated the Departments of Health and Human Services and HUD, cuts that directly reduce funding for local service providers, and has just begun the process of denying federal funds to so-called “sanctuary” jurisdictions like Seattle and the state of Washington, to which FEMA just denied funding to pay or the damage done during last year’s “bomb cyclone” weather emergency.
FEMA also just eliminated a disaster preparedness program, started during the first Trump Administration, that funds emergency preparedness programs such as HVAC upgrades for libraries to serve as emergency shelters during dangerous heat and wildfire events; flood prevention; earthquake mitigation for unreinforced masonry buildings, and “resilience hubs” designed to support residents during and after a disaster.
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More cuts are coming, and the city shows few signs of preparation. Instead of talking about cuts to the city’s biggest budget items, local taxes to help prevent thousands more people from becoming homeless, or other radical budget options (like a local New Deal), the city seems like it’s preparing to meet this moment by doing what it always does in challenging budget years—ask departments to come up with potential cuts, then find ways to make the cuts as painless as possible while also exempting the police department or increasing its budget.
We discussed all of that and more (including a false alarm about ICE vehicles that turned out to be regular Seattle police) on this week’s episode. It’s a bleak one, but at least we all agreed on the diagnosis, if not the cure.