Budget Chair Teresa Mosqueda unveiled the Seattle City Council’s rebalancing package for the 2021 budget this week and laid out $83 million in changes to Mayor Jenny Durkan’s budget proposal.
The Seattle Council proposes $35 million in cuts to the Seattle Police Department (SPD), whose bloated budget reached $409 million in 2019 thanks to the lucrative 2018 union contract and runaway overtime spending. The rebalancing package includes a further $3.7 million cut to the overtime budget, which had hit a whopping $30 million this year. Mayor Durkan also transferred $40 million in spending out of SPD by spinning off parking enforcement and 9-1-1 emergency call center, but hadn’t included many actual cuts. The $75 million reduction to the SPD budget works out to an 18% cut, a far cry from the 50% SPD cut that had been the rallying cry for protesters under the banner of Decriminalize Seattle and King County Equity Now.
Those groups mobilized the Solidarity Budget coalition (which The Urbanist joined) and are asking the Council for deeper cuts to the police budget. They have a petition asking for no new cops by writing a further $10 million transfer from SPD’s budget to Participatory Budget investing in the community, which would ensure the police officer hiring freeze continues next year. The petition also champions a few other budget changes:
- Restore two sidewalk projects in Beacon Hill ($550,000)
- Include funding for Green New Deal weatherization and electrification ($1 million)
- Boost funding for self-managed homeless tiny house communities ($800,000)
- Fund the Scofflaw Mitigation Program for people living in their cars and RVs
Budget additions this late in the process will now have to come with budget reductions elsewhere to fund them–dubbed Form C amendments is Council-speak. The Move All Seattle Substainably (MASS) coalition is urging Councilmembers to sign on to the Beacon Hill sidewalk amendment and the other Form Cs in the Solidarity Budget.
While the Mayor’s budget funded 1400 sworn officer positions–which would soon require lifting the hiring freeze–the Council ended up funding a force of 1322 officers. They arrived at this number by seeking 35 out-of-order police officers, targeting the worst cops on brutality and misconduct, and abrogating (eliminating) 93 positions once they become vacant through retirements or departures.
The proposal finishes and slightly expands upon the Council’s work from this summer when they sought a 100-position reduction at SPD. Police Chief Carmen Best’s retired in protest and Mayor Durkan cited the police cuts in her veto statement. Even the Council’s proposal would likely require significant hiring next year, particularly if the uptick in officers leaving SPD in September (39 in one month) is the start of a trend.
This time around, Mayor Durkan said she can live with the Council’s budget changes, signaling a tentative truce has formed between Mayor and Councilmembers following intense battles this summer over protests, police accountability, banning chemical weapons, and the 2020 rebalancing package (which she vetoed and they overrode).
