Everything Is Political … in South Seattle: New Candidate, Big Deficit

What's This Levy We're Being Asked to Approve?

If you're registered to vote, you've surely seen your special election ballot by now. Honestly, I've delayed filling it out and left it to float around various piles of papers and backpacks because I couldn't figure out what exactly it's all about. Once I finally sat down to do it, my personal politics made it a pretty easy choice. But, as they say, your mileage may vary. Here's what you need to know to vote.

The basics are this: It's a levy renewal, which means passing it would extend an existing property tax for another seven years. The rates would go up slightly over time, but they would start at $0.0275 per $1,000 of assessed property value in 2026.

The existing tax has, for the past seven years, funded something called the Automated Fingerprint Imaging System (AFIS). The AFIS is basically the thing from, like, Law & Order where they run a fingerprint through a big old database of everyone who's ever been fingerprinted by law enforcement to find a match. Our AFIS is a centralized system that all law enforcement agencies in King County have access to, making it cheaper to run. In fact, it ran an extra year beyond what was originally planned on funds from the last levy. As its advocates argue, it has demonstrated the ability to be a good steward of our taxpayer dollars.

Where things get tricky is deciding whether you want taxpayer dollars to go to surveillance technology used by law enforcement. The authors of the election guide statement in favor of the bill — King County Sheriff Patti Cole-Tindall, Renton Police Department Chief Jon Schuldt, and King County Councilmember Pete von Reichbauer — remind us that AFIS "has been an essential forensic tool in the fight against crime. AFIS has been instrumental in solving everything from violent offenses to burglaries, and your yes vote continues the ability to provide closure for victims and their families."

That all sounds great, but if you aren't a fan of police surveillance, continuing to fund tech that makes it more efficient and more automated might not be your cup of tea, especially as our politicians consistently expand the number of surveillance tools available to police. As always, vote your conscience.

A New Candidate for D2

On April 8, union representative Jamie Fackler declared his candidacy for Seattle City Council's District 2 seat. As the race progresses, the Emerald will be diving much, much deeper into it, but we'll cover the broad strokes here. First and foremost, Fackler is running with the blessing of recently departed District 2 Councilmember Tammy Morales, who was more or less the leader of Seattle's left in a post-Kshama Sawant world. 

Morales resigned before the end of her last term, citing a toxic work environment and ongoing harassment from her colleagues. Said colleagues replaced her with civilian police employee Mark Solomon, who has pledged not to run for the seat after his term ends.

Fackler describes his campaign as not being backed by corporations and himself as "not some polished politician." Our aspirant everyman wants to build way more housing, in no small part by fully funding and supporting the new Social Housing Developer. He lists his other priorities as improving road safety and tackling the fentanyl crisis. (We'll report more on Fackler's campaign soon.)

After-Hours Club Bill Passes

A bill that would add a new layer of regulations to clubs operating between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. passed the full council on Tuesday, April 15. The vote passed 6-0, with Councilmembers Maritza Rivera, Cathy Moore, and Dan Strauss absent.

Designed to tackle shootings and other violence at these after-hours clubs, it requires a minimum of two security staff at all times, video surveillance of entrances and exits, and unfettered access to public areas of the club for law enforcement.

We went into more detail on this bill last week, but basically, it's not entirely clear whether this will reduce violence or just increase onerous regulations on after-hours clubs. Now that it's passed, we'll find out.

The Budget Deficit Is Bad

A recent forecast from the city's Office of Economic and Revenue Forecasts (OERF) shows an even worse budget deficit than we were prepared for. While the City Council and Mayor Bruce Harrell managed to close a $250 million budget deficit in the one they passed late last year, the recent forecast predicts that we'll collect around $240 million less revenue than we'd predicted. Ouch.

The OERF went incredibly deep on why we're not going to take in as much tax money, and you can view their presentation online (see page 29 for a useful summary), but basically, we are hurtling towards a recession, and it's going to hurt. Potentially losing all our federal grants isn't going to help either.

To close the new gap, Harrell has made some uncharacteristically enthusiastic statements about progressive revenue. He told The Seattle Times he's open to the idea of a local capital gains tax or an increase of our existing payroll tax on high earners.

What's Up With the Washington Legislature?

While we can't cover the entire array of bills that are still in play this session, we've got a few key updates. The theme this week is bold, progressive bills being watered down. This and every week, but we digress.

The rent stabilization bill we wrote about last week got a lot more landlord-friendly on the Senate floor. Centrist Senate Dems, including Sen. Annette Cleveland (D-Vancouver), who helped kill universal health care this year, upped the 7% rent increase cap to 10% plus inflation, while also exempting single-family homes from the new limits. Cleveland was also the sole Democrat to vote against the bill after amendments.

Similarly, a bill that would give state benefits to striking workers was amended in the House to offer a lot less leave. Rep. Kristine Reeves (D-Moses Lake) introduced an amendment to drop the unemployment benefit period available to striking workers from 12 to four weeks, which was adopted.

The South Seattle Emerald is committed to holding space for a variety of viewpoints within our community, with the understanding that differing perspectives do not negate mutual respect amongst community members.

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.