On Monday, the Seattle City Council unanimously approved the spending plan for the JumpStart Seattle payroll tax, which passed 7-2 on July 6th. The plan will act as a roadmap for spending decisions for a tax expected to pull in at least $214 million annually from the wealthiest companies in Seattle. The first year of spending plan focuses on Covid relief for low-income tenants, immigrants, refugees, and small businesses, but the long-term focus is affordable housing production first and foremost, with major investments also planned in the Equitable Development Initiative and the Seattle Green New Deal.
However, councilmembers acknowledged that Mayor Jenny Durkan could ultimately obstruct their spending plan. She has refused to sign the tax legislation and has indicated she won’t sign the spending plan either, but won’t veto it either since the Council has a veto-proof majority on both. The Mayor going the route of obstruction, however, could push the Seattle City Council to proceed with impeaching and removing the Mayor, as thousands of their constituents have urged them to do.
Citing the Mayor’s gaslighting and brutal crackdown on Black Lives Matter protesters, the 36th District Democrats, 37th District Democrats, and 43rd District Democrats all passed resolutions urging Mayor Durkan to resign and advising the Seattle City Council to impeach her if she refuses–making national news. Those three districts represent a majority of Seattle’s population. Meanwhile, a recall Jenny Durkan petition has surpassed 39,000 signatures. Mayor Durkan attempted to pin the calls for her resignation on the supposed machinations of Councilmember Kshama Sawant, who is a member of the Socialist Alternative, frequent critic of the Democratic party establishment, and perennial punching bag for moderate Democrats.
“No, these resolutions were written by Democrats,” 36th District policy director Summer Stinson said. “As much as Mayor Durkan would like to believe she has one person questioning her leadership she needs to face the harsh reality that she has many, many Democrats and unions asking for her to resign.”
Budget Chair and bill author Teresa Mosqueda didn’t sound like she was backing down from a fight during in a fiery speech just before the unanimous Council vote. (Starts around 1:45:00 in the video.)
“While the bill itself was not vetoed, the Mayor has not committed to getting the funding for Covid relief out the door, which is critical,” Mosqueda said. “The critical effort for us all is to make sure the Mayor allocates the Covid relief dollars as specified in this law, because any delay means the consequences for our city’s health and recovery would be dire. It would be a dereliction of duties not to get this out.”
In fact Councilmember Mosqueda even seemed to be sharpening legal and political arguments in case it does come to an impeachment trial–a process which allows the Seattle City Council to remove the Mayor with six votes.
“And by definition dereliction of duties mean a shameful failure to meet one’s obligations,” Mosqueda continued. “It is our obligation to provide immediate relief to those who are facing a Covid crisis. It is our obligation to make sure immigrants and refugees who have been left out of federal assistance get the support they need. It is our obligations to help small businesses open up so they can hire more people when they are given the green light under Covid. And it our obligation to make sure more people can keep a roof over their head and put food on their table…”
