Everything Is Political … in South Seattle: Small Victories?

Budget's Done?

Yes, a budget has been passed, but no, it hasn't been signed into law. On the absolute last day to do it, April 27, both chambers of the state Legislature sent a budget to Gov. Bob Ferguson. While he battled with legislators over how they planned to close a whopping $16 billion budget hole — like George H.W. Bush, he would like you to read his lips and hear: "No new taxes" — he is likely to sign the final version. Why? Because it includes only some new taxes.

The proposed budget, totaling $77.9 billion over the next biennium, would involve a tax increase of approximately $8.7 billion over four years. This would come in large part from House Bill (HB) 2081 a slight increase to the business and occupation tax with a temporary surcharge for large companies, as well as Senate Bills (SB) 5813 and 5814. We covered these last week, but here are the broad strokes: SB 5813 would bump up our capital gains tax a bit, while SB 5814 would adjust our tax structure to better reflect the country's shift to a service economy. It would also raise taxes on nicotine products. Smoke 'em if you got 'em, Washington.

While those new taxes, along with a slew of smaller taxes (like the liquor license fee increase ), helped plug the budget hole, they didn't seal it. There are certainly cuts — $7 billion of them over four years — but the final budget proposal notably does not involve any furloughs of state employees, which was one budget-balancing idea floated by Ferguson. Classic "could have been worse" scenario, but let's be real: Small victories like that don't make looming austerity at all levels of government any less menacing.

Rich Are Taxed?

Nope. One budget-balancing idea that our austerity-loving governor really, really hated was SB 5797, a wealth tax proposed by Sen. Noel Frame (D-Seattle). The original proposal asked for $10 per $1,000 "of the true and fair value of a resident's taxable worldwide intangible assets" (read: stonks), while the revised, last-minute version brought that down to $5, which would have raised about $2 billion for the 2025–2027 budget period.

Legislators almost got it over the finish line. Almost.

While the halved version of the original proposal passed the Senate, thanks to last-minute maneuvering from Frame, it went nowhere in the House.

Rent's Controlled?

Kind of! The rent stabilization bill (HB 1217) that underwent endless changes (often at the hands of legislator-landlords) did finally pass. And with a few changes for the benefit of renters, no less.

While the bill's first pass in the Senate saw the rent increase cap raised from a firm 7% to 10% plus inflation, effectively allowing landlords to raise rents as much as they already have been, the final bill is back at 7% with an allowance for inflation, provided the total increase doesn't exceed 10%. Confusing, but basically it puts a little bit of a brake on the rapacious appetites of the rentier class. The final bill also clawed back the Senate's silly exemption on single-family homes and cut an exemption on new construction from 15 to 12 years.

Before we move on, a bit of perspective: The average wage increase for American workers has hovered around 4% for the last five years. Capping rent increases at 7% plus inflation is a win of sorts, but one that still puts renters at a loss financially. Real rent control, like fixing it to a percentage of household income, remains unconstitutional for all private property in Washington State.

Anything Else?

Absolutely! Lots of bills are now law or poised to become law, but the big news is that the anti-trans parent's bill of rights initiative got turned right around on its Republican backers by HB 1296 (yay!), and there's a new transportation tax package (SB 5801) that includes a 6-cent increase in gas taxes (yay for fixing our busted infrastructure but also why do we live in a state that relies so heavily on regressive taxes, especially when those taxes apply to something many people can't opt out of buying because we haven't bothered to build any sort of functioning public transit system?).

AFIS Levy Passed?

Yes. It passed 58% to 41% with only a quarter of eligible voters chiming in. If you're curious what it does, we broke it down in last week's column!

The D2 Race Is Officially Crowded

The race for the open City Council seat in District 2 just keeps drawing candidates. Northwest Harvest's director of community engagement Jeanie Chunn, who has a long history of labor advocacy in and around the restaurant industry, just hopped in. With her announcement, we've got five live ones: Chunn, Adonis Ducksworth, Eddie Lin, Jamie Fackler, and Takayo Ederer.

Chunn is clearly in the progressive camp, coming out against Mayor Bruce Harrell's aggressive sweeps policy that targets homeless people, in favor of funding for the Social Housing Developer, and in support of better police accountability, just to name a few. I've made it pretty obvious where I'm at on the political spectrum, so I'll just say that her campaign website is music to my ears. If you're more on the Ann Davison side of things, you'll hear it as nails on a chalkboard. Plan your vote accordingly!

Speaking of the Ann Davison side of things, Publicola's Erica Barnett did a deep dive into Ederer's finances, providing a brief history of Ederer's campaign contributions (which include a donation to Davison, among other Republicans) and an assessment of Ederer's personal wealth. Definitely worth a read if you're trying to pin down where the varying D2 candidates sit on the political spectrum.

The Land Use Committee Did Some Stuff

On April 30, at a meeting of the City Council's Land Use Committee, councilmembers voted 5-0 to send an ordinance to full council that would make major amendments to zoning laws on accessory dwelling units (ADUs) and detached accessory dwelling units (DADUs). Those adjustments bring us in line with a mandate from the 2023–2024 legislative session's HB 1337, which directed the city to allow at least two ADUs or DADUs per lot. 

There are a lot of even more specific tweaks in the council's ordinance, but the overall thrust of the proposal is good: It will make it way easier to build ADUs and DADUs, which will increase the supply of housing. Likely pretty affordable housing too, given the smaller size of these units. If the full council passes it, it would take effect this June. It's up for a vote this upcoming Tuesday.

The committee also heard a presentation on a bill that would ease the permitting process for the two new light rail lines we're getting, which would extend the Link system to West Seattle and Ballard. The presentation touched on a number of consolidations to the permitting and design review process, which city staffers said could shave as much as six months off the light rail construction timeline. Six months is not nothing, but the presentation was yet another unpleasant reminder that we aren't getting any sort of east-west connectivity in our city until 2032. In eight years, approximately the same amount of time since we passed the Sound Transit 3 light rail expansion package, individual cities across China have expanded their urban rail networks by hundreds of kilometers. Let's not even get started on their progress on high-speed intercity passenger rail.

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The opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints expressed by the contributors on this website do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints of the Emerald or official policies of the Emerald.

Tobias Coughlin-Bogue is a writer, editor and restaurant worker who lives in South Park. He was formerly the associate editor of Real Change News, and his work has appeared in The Stranger, Seattle Weekly, Vice, Thrillist, Thrasher Magazine, Curbed, and Crosscut, among other outlets.