Seattle City Budget

On Wednesday, Seattle Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck unveiled a proposal overhauling the city's Business and Occupation tax that she hopes to put before voters this November – if she can win over her colleagues. Dubbed the Seattle Shield Initiative, it would broaden the exemption for small businesses, but raise taxes on larger businesses.

Seattle and King County are reeling from both immediate and anticipated impacts from the second Trump administration. Seattle Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck and King County Councilmember Claudia Balducci are leading efforts to prepare for the volatility and protect community members. 

After weathering a budget scare, Seattle’s Equitable Development Initiative is growing, with $22 million in new awards aimed at combating displacement and anchoring communities of color.

A quiet change to the spending categories in Seattle's dedicated transit funding measure mean that the City of Seattle will be able to hire dozens of staff to work on different aspects of Sound Transit planning.

The Sara Nelson-led Seattle City Council passed their first city budget in an 8-1 vote. It greenlit the mayor’s plan to slash investments in affordable housing and social services and trim 48 staff positions in order to boost police spending by 16% and close a large deficit without raising new taxes.

Progressive challenger Alexis Mercedes Rinck's election win could mean a 5-4 majority for a capital gains tax — or even a supermajority, if Rob “this is the right tax at the wrong time” Saka can be convinced that the time is right. Other progressive taxes are also on the table.

A budget amendment put forward by Council President Nelson asks for information on how and when the city creates priority space for buses, citing opposition to Route 40. At a meeting last week, Nelson suggested that if she had wanted to kill a controversial project she already could have done it.

On Tuesday, progressive advocates rallied at Seattle City Hall to make a last-ditch defense to reverse a $330 million JumpStart cut that would deplete affordable housing funding. Tuesday was the last public hearing before Council finalizes the budget next week.