With a Budget Deficit Looming, Councilmembers — and Community Members — Seek Ways to Find Needed Funds

The City of Seattle’s budget process has entered its final month, and unless many dramatic changes are made in the coming weeks, the story of the 2025–2026 budget is clear: A large deficit will be filled with JumpStart tax funds, monies that will also be used to fund more than $100 million of new spending, some proposed by the mayor and some by Seattle City Councilmembers.

Budget Chair Dan Strauss presented his “balancing package” on Oct. 30, a document in which he modified Mayor Bruce Harrell’s proposal by moving money around to meet the priorities of councilmembers. In it, Strauss restored money to certain programs cut by Harrell and made up the difference by taking additional money from JumpStart, the payroll expense tax passed in 2021.

Overall, the balancing package adds approximately $15 million to the budget. The increases come a week after the Office of Economic and Revenue Forecasts told councilmembers that it projected approximately $48.6 million less coming into the general fund than previously expected between the end of 2024 and through the 2025–2026 budget.

The hole is largely plugged by reprogramming an additional $33 million from JumpStart, $13 million in salary savings in the Seattle Police Department, $10 million in “underspend assumptions” in the 2026 budget year, as well as smaller amounts from fund balances and reserves in other areas.

“I am a little nervous because this budget includes elements of forecast risk and future unsustainability,” said Council President Sara Nelson, noting that the new budget deficit projected for 2027 had grown from $76 million in the mayor’s proposal to roughly $100 million.

This is not the package he would have brought forward, Strauss said, and he promised not to leave families in Seattle behind.

“We are taking a step-by-step approach so we don’t unnecessarily cut the basic services that Seattleites depend on and step over a cliff,” Strauss said. “We are taking a step-down approach.”

So, what’s in this thing?

There are 119 changes contemplated in the balancing package, many of which fall into areas of concern for specific councilmembers after going through a week of presentations where specific departments explained the impacts of the reductions in the mayor’s budget.

Examples include increases in district-specific arts investments; $1 million for a public safety program in the Chinatown-International District; increases in food programs; new money for non-congregate homeless shelters (or shelters that allow for some personal space, like Tiny House Villages); and a six-month reprieve for City staff whose jobs are still expected to be cut.

Some cuts in the original budget that had received support from speakers at the Oct. 16 public hearing were also restored, including legal services for homeless youth, tax preparation help for low-income families, and programming at the Seattle Channel, which was going to eliminate shows like “Art Zone with Nancy Guppy” and “City Inside/Out.”

Most speakers present during the public comment on the balancing package expressed displeasure with how the council was looking to spend limited resources in a hard budget year when, they said, many Seattleites are in a precarious economic position.

“The city is spending twice as much on the World Cup as tenant services,” said Kate Rubin, executive director of Be:Seattle, a nonprofit that works on policies for renters. More than half of Seattle households rent, but programs such as education and legal help had originally faced reductions.

Strauss cautioned that some of the saves came from one-time funds, encouraging groups to apply to existing City funding opportunities. 

“We cannot promise funds will be available in future years,” he said.

Councilmembers remained concerned about the bumps — despite the fact that each advocated for an increase somewhere — and expressed hope that the overall bill would be lowered during the amendment process, which begins on Nov. 13, the day after a second public hearing.

Budget amendments were due by Nov. 1 at noon.

At the beginning of the meeting, members of the public expressed frustration that the balancing package had been uploaded the evening before, leaving little time to digest the proposed changes.

But people can still push councilmembers, and they can be important for discovering priorities and projects that weren’t otherwise brought forward, says former councilmember Andrew Lewis, who represented District 7, which covers large swaths of downtown.

He points to projects like the Garfield Super Block and a decarbonization of community centers led by 350 Seattle.

“I think it’s good when people who are organizing pick lots of different mediums,” Lewis said. “I think the campaigns that were most effective were ones that were able to break through on social media, in emails, and at hearings.”

Thomas Rasmussen spent 14 years as a council aide before spending another 11 as a councilmember. He also says public input can lift up issues to the council level and communicate their importance to the community, which stands a chance at changing council priorities.

“It is important to speak out. You may feel like you’re the only one, but you never know. A councilmember may be moved to say we need to look at this,” he said.