After months of deliberation, debates, and deep dives into the details, the Seattle City Council has approved the 2025-26 biennial budget, and the final product is good news for employers and residents of the city. The punch line? The budget does all of the things we want it to – and nothing we don’t. And to say thank you to our city leaders in person, I hope you will join me on Dec. 12 at the Chamber’s Public Officials Reception.
Again, this city budget was good in so many ways and the employer community should be very proud of our work. I also want to give big kudos to the Chamber team for incredible, and sometimes all-hours, 7-days-a-week, work on it.
What We Wanted, What We Got
After a lot of insider twists and turns in the Seattle budget process, we saw four Chamber goals accomplished:
- We successfully urged the Council not to support three new tax proposals, including a local capital gains tax – these proposals had no analysis, no consideration of the impact, and no plan to spend the money. We also saw prudent changes to keep the payroll expense tax flexible, as it has been in years past.
- The final budget maintains 300 shelter beds, provides historic funding in affordable housing, expands work in the Downtown Activation Plan, and prioritizes public safety, bolstering our crisis response teams, including police, fire, Health 99, and CARE.
- The City Council moved forward a number of provisos and Statements of Legislative Intent directives around accountability and budget practices, requiring the budget office to report on past budget underspends and grants, and requiring the Office of Housing to create a Seattle Housing Investment Plan.
- The final budget was a low-drama, 8-1 vote in favor, not deviating significantly from what Mayor Bruce Harrell proposed.
And, because there continue to be a lot of takes on what happened during this budget process, it’s important to remember the facts: this was the largest budget the city of Seattle has ever passed, the city is bringing in more tax revenue than ever, and Seattle’s Office of Housing will see historically large allocations in the next two years.
Lastly, the notion that the city needs more progressive revenue has hit fever-pitch and has taken on a life of its own. The Chamber responsibly endorses tax measures to support government providing services, whether it is levies like the recently passed Keep Seattle Moving transportation levy, or defense of revenue-generating legislation, like the No on 2117 campaign to defend the Climate Commitment Act. But government levying taxes is a means to an end, not an act of righteousness. And it is not just a good idea, but it is the responsibility of our elected officials to manage and steward those resources to make progress on priority issues – and that applies to each of our cities and counties in our region.
State Budget Talk Begins
At the state level, I’m thrilled to be serving on Governor-Elect Bob Ferguson’s transition team, co-chairing a subcommittee with Sen. Mark Mullet on the budget, charged with identifying tangible strategies and options to improve efficiencies and reduce spending, including identifying programs that should be re-evaluated.
This work will also be happening in the face of what we know will be serious conversations about increasing taxes when the legislature convenes in January, so supporting the Governor-Elect in his efforts on this will be important.
We will approach this state budget work as we always do, thinking about reductions of programs and services that aren’t getting results, or those that have grown faster than real-world demand, or simply aren’t aligned with current state priorities. Traditional budget management tools like hiring freezes and travel bans – those tools will always be on the table and can be necessary – but performance is always a better way to get at the issue. And I will highlight the need for short-term and long-term strategies to ensure our state is financially healthy, including limiting use of one-time funds for ongoing costs, improving budget transparency, and urging use of accurate forecasts so the state doesn’t spend more than it will have.
And as always: I will drive the need for us to work together to generate more economic activity – and therefore tax revenue for the state – by making it easier to start or grow your business.
But…..That’s Not All We’re Up To!
In addition to budget work, your Chamber is working for you every day in so many other ways:
- Developing content with business operations trainings and best practices
- Alerting businesses to big changes in minimum wage, L&I and Paid Family and Medical Leave costs
- Working on policy priorities like getting more workforce housing through the city of Seattle comprehensive plan
- Making sure the Families, Education, Preschool, and Promise Levy will prepare our future workforce
- Ensuring big transportation projects are managed well to minimize impact to businesses
Which is to say, if your 2025 goal is to get more plugged into the Chamber network – we’ve got plenty more for you to get engaged in!
I’ll see you at the Public Officials Reception,
Rachel
Rachel Smith
President and CEO