Last Friday and today, the City Council’s budget committee walked through three dozen potential amendments to SPD’s budget for the rest of the year, setting up a vote on those amendments on Wednesday. Here’s what’s on the table.
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Council starts deliberations on amendments to proposed 2020 rebalanced budget
On Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning the Council began discussing proposed amendments to Mayor Durkan’s 2020 budget rebalancing package, covering areas unrelated to SPD’s budget (which will come next week). And the mutual hostility between the Council and the Mayor continued to be on full display.
Continue reading“Defunding SPD” is going to be a lot harder than anyone thinks
Yesterday’s acknowledgement by the city that the Council’s ban on “less lethal” weapons violated the terms of the 2012 Consent Decree points to a much larger issue: efforts to “defund” and re-imagine the Seattle Police Department will face a complex web of legal, labor, and contractual impediments that will drag out the process for several months or possibly years.
Continue readingCouncil and Mayor escalate war of words over SPD budget, while positions begin to converge
This morning both the City Council and Mayor Durkan picked up a microphone to continue their conflict over potential changes to the budget for the Seattle Police Department. And yet, when one looks past the rhetoric, their positions are not that far apart — with one glaring exception.
Continue readingUnderstanding the Seattle Police Department Budget
The past month has brought calls for dramatic reductions to police departments budgets, including here in Seattle. In order to make sense of those demands, it’s important for us to understand how police departments request and spend their budgets. Here is a deep dive of the SPD budget, with a historical perspective, breakdowns from a number of different angles, a look at Mayor Durkan’s proposed 2020 cuts (as well as her early thoughts on next year’s budget), and some of the principles behinds calls to “defund the police.”
Continue readingCouncil extends special budget session through end of July
The Council’s special budget session to re-balance the city’s 2020 budget was originally supposed to finish up on July 8, with final approval of the budget on July 20. But with the delay in the Mayor delivering her proposed re-balanced budget, the schedule has been pushed out two weeks.
Continue readingHow much of SPD’s budget did the Mayor propose to cut?
It sounds like a straightforward question: in Mayor Durkan’s proposed “rebalancing” budget released yesterday, how much of SPD’s 2020 budget would be cut? But the devil is in the details.
Continue readingMayor publishes revised 2020 budget proposal
This afternoon, the Mayor’s Office released its proposed “rebalanced” 2020 city budget, accounting for the expected revenue shortfall as well as hefty expenses for responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Continue readingMosqueda introduces her own “Amazon tax” proposal
This morning, Council member Teresa Mosqueda unveiled her own progressive revenue proposal for Seattle, which is at once both a “light” version of her colleagues’ “Amazon tax” proposal, and also even more explicitly targeted at Amazon.
Continue readingMayor’s proposed budget revision delayed
According to a spokesperson, the Mayor’s Office will not be transmitting its proposed revision to the 2020 budget to the City Council today as was originally expected.
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