On November 21, the Seattle City Council approved a $7.8 billion budget for FY 2024, which begins on January 1.

Seattle has a biennial budget process, so this is essentially a supplemental budget to the FY 2023-2024 budget approved by the Council last year. In his budget transmittal in late September, Mayor Bruce Harrell suggested limited additional public safety spending, including funds for a new acoustic gunshot detection program.

The Council also added new spending, including a $300,000 drug treatment pilot program and $20 million for mental health services. The added mental health services will be funded by an increase in the JumpStart payroll tax, which is imposed on businesses with the highest payrolls in the city.

Big budget challenges lie ahead for Seattle, which is facing projected average deficits of $218 million for six years, beginning in 2025. The Council is expected to consider additional revenue sources, including a local capital gains tax, before leaving office at the end of the year.

As citywide Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda moves on to the King County Council at the beginning of 2024, the Seattle City Council will begin the process of filling her position in January. Mosqueda is expected to resign from her Seattle seat on January 2, a day before she is sworn into the County Council.

Under the Seattle charter, the Council will have 20 days from the day the position is open to name a successor. To qualify for the appointment, a person must be:

The appointee will serve for most of 2024. Voters will choose a person to fill the final year of her term in the November 2024 general election. Once the election winner is certified, they will be sworn in. In 2025, this Council position (along with Councilmember Sara Nelson, Mayor Bruce Harrell, and City Attorney Ann Davison) will be back on the ballot for a full term.

In September, four members of the King County Council proposed legislation to create a new minimum wage standard for unincorporated areas of the County.

The legislation would raise the minimum wage to $18.99 for employers with 500 or more employees. For businesses with 15 or fewer employees and less than $2 million in annual revenue, the minimum wage would start at $15.99. This gap would narrow by 50 cents a year until parity is achieved. For businesses with between 15 and 500 employees, the minimum wage would start at $16.99 and rise by $1 a year until it catches up to the big business minimum wage. The minimum wage would be indexed to inflation at all three wage levels.

The Council’s Transportation, Economy, and Environment Committee held hearings on the legislation on October 17 and November 16, as did the full Council on November 28. The Council deferred further action on the legislation to 2024.

On January 1, 2024, the Seattle minimum wage for employers with 501 or more employees will rise to $19.97 per hour. The Washington State minimum wage will jump to $16.28 per hour—up from $15.74 in 2023. Seattle and Washington have the highest city and state minimum wage rates in the country.

WR will send a letter to the King County Council in January to express its opposition to creating a new minimum wage in unincorporated King County.

Seattle saw some good news and some mediocre economic news this year. On the plus side, 83,000 workers were in their downtown offices in September, a 21% increase from the same time in 2022.

Visitors also provided some positive news as their numbers—2.5 million—reached 92% of pre-pandemic levels. Even better, hotel demand exceeded 2019 levels.

Despite these promising numbers, the pandemic-triggered decline in downtown Seattle retail is showing no signs of reversal. Retail space occupancy has dropped by 10% since the arrival of Covid. Even worse, new retail licenses downtown are being issued at a rate about 50% below 2019 levels. Total foot traffic downtown is off by 20%, and the average trip is more than an hour shorter than in 2019.

One final bit of good news. The Seattle International Film Festival acquired the former Cinerama movie theater from the estate of Paul Allen. The newly-named SIFF Downtown will reopen on December 14. And, yes, the chocolate popcorn is back!

All registered voters in Seattle receive four $25 Democracy Vouchers to give to the city candidates of their choice. This year, Seattleites donated 95,000 vouchers, raising almost $2.4 million for the 30 candidates who qualified for the vouchers.

Generally, the contribution limit for Seattle campaigns is $300. However, if independent expenditures are spent in a race, the contribution limit for all candidates running in that race rises to $600. In 2023, independent expenditure committees spent almost $1.1 million in city council elections. Business interests spent close to $883,000 of that total.

Councilmember-elect Joy Hollingsworth, who raised over $150,000 in Democracy Vouchers, noted that the value of the vouchers went well beyond the money raised. “I think the Democracy Voucher program is extremely valuable for people who don’t have a wealthy network,” explained Hollingsworth. She lauded the direct voter contact generated by the voucher program by adding, “It’s also like asking people for their vote.”