Normally, when Council President Sara Nelson approaches a podium to talk about treatment, my eyes jump into an exaggerated roll entirely beyond my control. Again with this stuff? We get it, you're in recovery, and you think everyone else should be. Especially before they get any services or handouts from the once beautiful city of Free-attle!
But this time, it's different.
Last session, the state Legislature authorized cities and counties to increase sales taxes by 0.1% for public safety programs. Nelson wants us to dedicate at least 25% of the earnings from that tax to increasing access to treatment and recovery options.
If you've spent any time talking to people who are experiencing active addiction, especially when they're also experiencing homelessness, you know it is insanely hard to access treatment even when it is available. I cannot tell you how many people I interviewed during my time at Real Change who were ready to get clean that same day, if only they could get to a place to get clean and get in. So, yes, there absolutely is a need for more treatment options and better access to them.
Better yet, Nelson wants to funnel the new money toward stuff that meets that need, like on-demand outpatient treatment and expanding the LEAD and CoLEAD programs. LEAD stands for "law enforcement assisted diversion," and both versions of the program have been wildly successful. She also wants to expand access to long-lasting buprenorphine programs, which help people with opioid dependencies stave off withdrawals over a longer period of time, allowing them to live life without being tethered to a methadone clinic.
More evidence in favor of this proposal? Everyone who is anyone in homelessness services showed up to support it. We're talking the Downtown Emergency Services Center, Purpose Dignity Action (the LEAD and CoLEAD people), Evergreen Treatment Services (who oversee the vital REACH outreach efforts), and more.
What a coup! District 8 City Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck came up with an elegantly simple solution to ease the tax burden on small businesses, while simultaneously raising new revenue to cover our $251 million budget shortfall. Better yet, she did it with the full buy-in of Mayor Bruce Harrell, who appears to be all too eager to out-progressive challenger Katie Wilson, the ultra-progressive general secretary of the Transit Riders Union.
"This plan would reduce taxes for 90% of Seattle businesses while raising a needed $90 million to protect City investments against Trump threats to federal funding and to our local economy," Harrell said.
What did Rinck do? It's simple, really. She proposed to completely eliminate or greatly reduce the B&O (Business & Operations) tax on 90% of Seattle businesses, namely those who bring in less than $2 million in annual revenue. The previous exemption threshold was only for businesses making less than $100,000 per year. To offset this new exemption, rates will go up for service companies and not much for everyone else.
The beauty of the plan is that only businesses with massive annual revenue — in the eight-figure arena, according to Rinck's press release — will see a significant increase.
Better yet, Rinck opted to send this one to the people, so any Chamber-of-Commerce-friendly councilmembers who don't want to have their names attached to it can vote "yes" and maintain plausible deniability by saying they want to let the people decide. Brilliant, Rinck. Brilliant.
Lastly, something a bit more lighthearted. The transit advocacy group Fix the L8, which, as the name implies, wants our elected officials to enact changes to make "Seattle's Worst Bus Route" a bit better, is putting on a race. The contestants? You versus the No. 8 bus during rush hour. As organizers note, "We all know that it's really easy to out-walk a Route 8 bus." A turtle could even do it, according to the flyer.
But, what they really want to know is, "Can we still beat it while doing the cha-cha slide, hopscotching, or in a conga line?" Bring your dancing shoes, bring your turtle, bring crutches, bring a bit of irreverence to an otherwise serious issue of on-time arrivals and overcrowding that affects everyone from SLU to the Central District.
Got something *political* I should know? Tell me about it: Tobias.CB@SeattleEmerald.org.
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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.
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