Council overrides veto of COVID-19 relief bill, then immediately adjusts it to new fiscal reality (updated)

This afternoon in a special meeting, the City Council overrode Mayor Durkan’s veto of a bill that authorizes the spending of $86 million from the city’s two reserve fund to pay for COVID-19 relief programs. Then it immediately passed a new bill that reduced the amount to $57 million, reflecting the most recent news about the city’s increasing revenue shortfall this year.

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Welcome to the next phase of COVID. The rules just changed, so pay attention.

While we were all (rightly) focused on Geroge Floyd, police violence, and structural racism, something important quietly happened on the COVID front in Washington: we moved out of Phase 1, the shutdown. In our new reality some of the rules are the same, but many of them have changed. For the most part, the government seems ready to do its part; but the rest of us aren’t yet.  It’s time to get our act together.

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“Amazon Tax” bill is off the table — for now.

According to a memo issued today, Council President Lorena Gonzalez has decided that the payroll tax bill put forward by Council members Sawant and Morales does not meet the criteria for allowed Council actions under Governor Inslee’s proclamation modifying the terms of the Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA) and Public Records Act (PRA). As such, the Council may not continue deliberations on it while the Governor’s proclamation remains in effect, and next Wednesday’s Budget Committee meeting to discuss the bill has been cancelled.

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