City budget office updates its economic and revenue forecast, and City Hall misses the message

The City Budget Office delivers an economic and revenue forecast to the Mayor and City Council three times a year: in August, at the beginning of the annual budget process; in November, for a last-minute budget update before it’s passed; and in April as a check-in to see how things are going. Today City Budget Director Ben Noble delivered the April update, which he will present in person to the City Council’s Finance and Housing Committee tomorrow. The Mayor and two Councilmembers immediately issued press releases remarking positively on the economic recovery, highlighting $40 million in additional revenues, and salivating …

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Special Council meeting scheduled for tomorrow

I noted on Monday that the City Council stumbled in attempting to approve a typically routine grant-acceptance ordinance, and ended up in a parliamentary rathole — all because of a $90,000 line-item in which ICE reimburses SPD for costs related to joint narcotics enforcement activities at the Port of Seattle. The Council has scheduled a special meeting for noon tomorrow (Wednesday) to resolve this mess. The Council will take up an amended version of the bill that strikes the ICE reimbursement but leaves the rest of the line-items intact. Passing it will require five “yes” votes, but with the ICE …

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Municipal bank feasibility study says “theoretically yes, but realistically no”

At the beginning of 2018 the City of Seattle commissioned a study to look at the feasibility of creating a municipal bank. Those study results were released yesterday.  It says that in theory the city could create its own bank, but there are significant legal, logistical, regulatory and financial challenges to doing so.

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