Mayor Bruce Harrell says his proposed Mid-Year Supplemental budget package emphasizes needed public safety investments that would expand the city’s Community Assisted Response and Engagement police alternative effort, support youth mental health, and make more money available for recruiting and training public safety staff.

With the city facing cutbacks in a looming budget deficit, Harrell’s office says the new budget proposal will also be “net revenue neutral” by shifting spending away from other priorities.

“Seattle is making meaningful progress on our most serious public safety challenges and this package will ensure we continue that momentum with needed investments, improvements, and staffing,” Harrell said in the announcement.

Harrell said the “revenue-neutral budget package” proposal is “both an urgent and thoughtful investment to improve safety and address behavioral health needs, bringing a strategic spending approach and pursuing outside funds to make our dollars go farther.”

A core element of the revised budget package would be an expansion of the city’s policing alternative CARE team that will increase the size of the department and expand it to citywide, seven day a week service starting with an expansion including Capitol Hill and the Central District.  $1.9 million in federal funding will help boost the expansion.

Harrell’s Mid-Year Supplemental package also includes $1.7 million in general fund spending that would be paid for in 2024 “through savings from a city hiring freeze as well as anticipated healthcare cost savings:

• Police Recruitment – $800,000 to expand recruitment marketing and continue making progress on this critical need. 
• Dangerous Buildings – $350,000 to cover the cost of demolishing vacant buildings which represent a significant hazard with over 30 fires so far this year. This funding will cover demolition costs while the City recovers expenses from property owners. 
• Paramedic Hiring – $258,000 to train five additional paramedic students and address vacancies in this essential role.  
• Sexual Assaults – $250,000 to address gaps identified as a result of the mayor’s Executive Order and the work of the Mayor’s Advisory Panel on Sexual Assault and System Reform to develop a new trauma-informed training for police, expand analysis of data and cases, and improve victim support. 

Seeking to stem the tide of gun violence involving young victims and perpetrators, Harrell’s proposal also  authorizes up to ten million dollars total in youth mental health investments with 2024 costs his office is proposing be paid by the city’s JumpStart Payroll Expense Tax.

• School Based Counselors – $5.6 million to add full-time mental health counselors in all 29 school-based health centers beginning in January 2025 to expand in-person therapy access and explore scaling up solutions in partnership with Public Health – Seattle & King County. 
• Telehealth Therapy – $2.4 million to make it easier for students to access appropriate care through telehealth therapy services, expanding access to telehealth from 80 students currently to over 2,000 as efforts are further refined and scaled. 
• School Safety – $2 million toward youth violence prevention, intervention, and interruption programs and other steps to promote short- and long-term safety. 

The supplemental package also covers the cost of updated collective bargaining agreements with the Coalition of City Unions, Local 27 Firefighters, and police officers. The 2024 costs for labor contracts were covered through a combination of reserves held for that purpose and cost saving measures, Harrell’s office says.

The proposal comes as the mayor and the Seattle City Council are wrestling with a projected more than $230 million budget deficit next year as inflation and wages have ballooned and officials are eyeing revenue from the city’s JumpStart tax on its largest employers as a potential source to patch part of the hole.

The tax on the payrolls of Seattle’s largest employers was instituted to help power pandemic recovery but now one of the more flexible sources of major revenue available for city hall’s spending plans.

More than $200 million in JumpStart tax dollars were earmarked for affordable housing and human services in the city’s 2024 budget.

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