The Seattle City Council voted, 6-3, on Nov. 29 to approve the city budget for 2023-24.
In response to this action, Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Rachel Smith issued this statement:
"Budgets are a clear reflection of priorities, and we know Seattle voters want visible progress on homelessness, public safety, and affordability. The budget delivered by the Mayor and approved by the Seattle City Council today made important choices on these issues over the next two years – affirming the City’s continued commitment to a regional approach to homelessness, continuing to fund diversified emergency responses, correcting the costly move of parking enforcement officers, funding key parts of the Mayor’s police officer recruitment and retention strategy, and investing in making commercial spaces more affordable.
At the same time, today’s budget also reflects a missed opportunity for thoughtful planning on public safety. Once again, when seeking resources to fund other priorities, public safety investments were the first place to look. While much was said about how permanent cuts of 80 police officer positions could potentially be restored in future years, we need to call a spade a spade: this was an opportunity to rebuild trust with the voters about what an all-of-the-above approach to public safety looks like – and a majority of this Council voted against it. My 15 years of government experience have taught me that votes like this further erode public trust, as well as the systems themselves.
Voters expect to see progress on the most-pressing issues. As we look ahead to future budgets, I’m hopeful our leaders will keep in mind two things: first, the recent study by the Downtown Seattle Association showing the city has financially recovered from the pandemic, moved several of its costly programs to be funded by levy lid lifts, and has nearly $300 million in new revenue from the payroll expense tax. In this kind of financial position, it is right for voters to expect to see more progress. Second, budgets should not be doing the exact same thing at the exact same level as in years past, and then adding to it. It is also right for the voters to expect to see prioritization and that the resources we have today – not the last dollar or the next dollar – will be invested in their priorities.
Seattle’s promise far outweighs its problems, and that is most evident when we focus our resources."
Original source can be found here.
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