The Council spent nearly the entire day today finishing up the city’s 2021 budget, between the final Budget Committee Meeting this morning, and then a final stamp of approval this afternoon at the weekly City Council meeting. Most of it was routine procedure — except for about an hour spent on one last-minute proposal to trim a bit more out of SPD’s budget.
Continue readingTag: 2021 budget
SPD budget changes, revisited: some corrections, a better explanation, and a last-minute change in the works
Last Friday I posted a summary of the Council’s budget deliberations last week, including where they landed on SPD’s 2021 budget. Since then I’ve had several email exchanges with the Council’s staff, as they pointed out some inaccuracies in the numbers I posted (and they humbly admitted that they didn’t really explain it all very well). The Council’s unwillingness to try to impose a hiring freeze on SPD in 2021 was widely (but not always accurately) reported over the past few days, and it has created blowback from advocacy groups over the notion that SPD might actually grow in size …
Continue readingCouncil talks a lot, but makes few changes to its 2021 budget plan
It took a day and a half of deliberations, but in the end the City Council made just a handful of tweaks to its planned amendments to the 2021 city budget, and is now poised to give its final approval to the budget package.
Continue readingNo big surprises as Council prepares to vote on 2021 budget amendments
The day is finally upon us: after seven weeks of work, tomorrow the Council will begin the process of voting on amendments to the Mayor’s proposed 2021 budget. This morning the City Council’s staff published the near-final list of amendments, and there are few, if any, surprises — though there will be some big speeches and tense moments as Council member Sawant forces her colleagues to take some uncomfortable votes.
Continue readingMosqueda unveils 2021 budget balancing package
This afternoon, Council budget chair Teresa Mosqueda rolled out her “balancing package,” a collection of changes to the Mayor’s 2021 proposed budget that address Council members’ consensus priorities, while keeping the overall budget balanced as required by law. The package follows through with the cuts to SPD they proposed two weeks ago, and it cuts Mayor’s Durkan’s $100 million Equitable Communities Initiative down to $30 million. Shortly after it was released, Durkan issued a press release… largely praising it. Wait, what was that again?
Continue reading“Black Brilliance” research project delivers preliminary budget recommendations to City Council
Last week the Black Brilliance Research Project, the coalition group led by Decriminalize Seattle and King County Equity Now and asked by the City Council to spearhead a participatory budgeting process for city investments to increase community safety in BIPOC communities, delivered a preliminary report to the Council with a set of recommendations on priorities for the 2021 city budget.
Continue readingCity Council gives first clear signals on 2021 budget, and gets an early Christmas present from the budget office
Last week the City Council had its first round of discussions on concrete proposals to amend Mayor Durkan’s proposed 2021 budget. While we have to wait until November 10 to find out which of those proposals will move forward, there were enough clues in last week’s discussion to give us a good idea — and to tell us how the Council members are addressing big topics such as defunding SPD, investing in the BIPOC community, and addressing homelessness. Also, today the City Budget Office gave the Council some good news: revenues are coming in higher than earlier estimates.
Continue readingUnderstanding the Mayor’s 2021 budget proposal
This afternoon, Mayor Jenny Durkan officially released her budget proposal for next year. Let’s dive in to the details and see what’s in there.
Continue readingSchedule for 2021 budget development released
Last week, Budget chair Teresa Mosqueda released the annual “budget memo,” outlining the process and schedule that the Council will follow for developing next year’s city budget.
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