Seattle City Budget: Our Work Made an Impact

Image via Guy Oron, Real Change

For 8 weeks this Fall, the Church Council through our Seattle Budget Roundtable has shown up at City Hall to advocate for a budget that reflects the values of community care. Week after week, faith leaders from every district in Seattle showed up to declare that budgets are a moral document and should reflect the values of our city through public investment. Our demands through this season were to protect the original spending plan of the JumpStart Payroll Expense Tax and to create new progressive revenue streams.

We are disappointed that City Council did not ensure the original JumpStart spending plan, allowing City Council to keep using JumpStart revenue as a slush fund to fill the city’s revenue shortfall. JumpStart is a payroll tax that invests in communities, addressing systemic racism and long-standing inequities – funding things like affordable housing, equitable development, green new deal efforts, and supporting small businesses. For the past several years, JumpStart has brought in more revenue than expected and City Council has redirected that excess to other areas of need, but also to backfill the city’s revenue shortfalls. JumpStart is a volatile tax that depends on high wage employers. Its surplus should not and cannot continue to be the city’s safety net for revenue shortfalls. It’s beyond time for additional policy solutions.

In the face of such a daunting budget deficit, it is obvious the city has a revenue problem, not a spending problem. Relying this heavily on JumpStart is a dangerous precedent. We believe the city needs more progressive revenue sources in addition to JumpStart and there was an opportunity to add a Capital Gains tax to the city’s revenue sources. Instead, City Council voted to kick the can down the road by not adopting the proposed Capital Gains tax.

However, it is clear that our witness had an impact on Council members, even as their decisions did not reflect so. Throughout this process, our voices joined thousands of people across the city who called City Council to prioritize care over punishment, and that impact is something that Council members cannot erase, even if they choose to ignore it. Council members not only knew but spoke our names by the last days of public comment and we deepened our relationship with impacted community groups and partners. This is the collective power we are building and will be part of the transformational change yet to come!

Image via Seattle Channel

As Council members shared their final statements before the vote, Council Member Morales gave a moving testimony that honored the work of the thousands who showed up for weeks to call for the preservation and original intention of the JumpStart tax, as well as community care over punishment. Our Seattle Budget Cycle Roundtable rose in a standing ovation to honor her work in return. That moment was heavy, and held deeply by all in the room, including many Council members who disagreed with hers and our testimony. Council Member Morales shared:

"I came into office five years ago to repair the harm that was being done to Black and brown communities, particularly as a representative of District 2. So to the advocates who have worked so hard to protect funding for programs that serve communities of color, that serve the most vulnerable, or that could have addressed our housing and infrastructure needs. I'm sorry that this budget will cause more harm..."

The Church Council will continue to push City Council to listen to the many, not the wealthy few, to support thriving neighborhoods across the city.