The Seattle City Council has been eyeing the city’s pandemic-era JumpStart tax used to pay for services and affordable housing as a possible band-aid to patch up myriad holes from the city’s projected deficit. Now the council is considering a proposal that would raid the funding as an alternative to the upcoming ballot measure to create a new $1 million salary tax to fund social housing.
Seattle City Councilmember Maritza Rivera representing the city’s northeast District 4 has unveiled proposed legislation that would put a competing measure on the February ballot. If passed by the council, the proposal would present voters with an alternative for funding the newly created Seattle Social Housing Developer.
The Let’s Build Social Housing ballot Initiative 137 would add a 5% tax on companies for every dollar over a million paid to a Seattle employee in annual compensation including salary, stock, and bonuses. It will appear on the ballot in the special election in February.
The House our Neighbors group behind the salary tax proposal says is would add up to around $50 million a year to fund the development authority and power its ability to borrow to build or acquire 2,000 units of housing over 10 years.
The Rivera alternative backed by Mayor Bruce Harrell would amend the existing JumpStart payroll tax so that the Seattle Social Housing Developer receives just $10 million annually, administered by the Seattle Office of Housing for five years with an option for extending the program.
The council is expected to call a special meeting Thursday in time to vote on the proposal to have the initiative appear on the February ballot.
“In the alternative bill,” Rivera’s office said in the announcement, “funding could be used to acquire, develop, or rehabilitate social housing and provide administrative support to the Social Housing Developer. It aligns this new social housing effort with the safeguards that apply to Seattle’s existing affordable housing providers to ensure public dollars are spent wisely and effectively.”
The House our Neighbors group has spoken out against the alternative. “We oppose raiding Jumpstart and the Housing Levy to pay for social housing,” the group said. “We will be investigating our legal options.”
n February 2023, Initiative 135 to create a Seattle social housing developer won handily with 57% of voters approving the proposal. But the program came without funding components because of limitations imposed on the state’s initiative process. Meanwhile, Public Development Authorities do not have taxing authority in Washington.
The JumpStart tax on the payrolls of Seattle’s largest employers, meanwhile, 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.
Last year, “Changes to JumpStart Payroll Expense Tax” was listed atop the city’s Revenue Stabilization Workgroup’s so-called “short list” for possible alternative revenue sources to help Seattle overcome the deficit.
With approval by the council this week, the competing JumpStart measure would join the proposed new payroll tax on the February ballot.
SODA vote
In other City Hall activity, the full council is expected to approve the creation of new Seattle “Stay out of Drug Areas” including District 3 representative Joy Hollingsworth’s proposed Capitol Hill zone including Cal Anderson, the busy Capitol Hill Station light rail and transit facility, and the areas around the Harvard Market shopping center as well as the core of the Pike/Pine nightlife scene. The full council will vote on the legislation in Tuesday afternoon’s session.
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Wow…Just wow.
It’s war on the poor? The holeless is bailing us out?
I am a disabled vet in affordable housing. I feel fortunate. Very fortunate.
As long as we have self dealing and corruption on the council, we’ll never have a chance. So far everything seems geared towards destruction of wage gains. Gains is social justice/housing.
A promise is made to be forgotten. A “Temporary” business welfare of $2.75 an hour of the backs of the working poor. Is now going to be permanent. They need MORE time to recover. But the ESSENTIAL WORKERS? Their $4 an hour vanished as scheduled. Within 4 months of the end of the pandemic.
Yet businesses? Oh they are so put upon…whaaa! Simply push the problem into others districts. As long as your store front is just the way you like it, the rest doesn’t concern me. Right?
You can bet the council has set out to completely destroy the working poor for their personal benefits. They will exploit anyone for money. They and their donors are all that matters. All they do is change the laws in their favor. Lose elections and reap the rewards for decades. It’s not about being reelected. It’s about spending a year making laws that last for decades. Lying to get there is simply fair politics.