Seattle Council Package Adds $50M in Priorities Using JumpStart Funds

Seattle is facing a fiscal crossroads as City Hall attempts to balance a budget that has repeatedly relied on temporary fixes to cover recurring gaps.

After Mayor Katie Wilson closed a $175 million hole in the city’s general fund through various cuts, Budget Chair Dan Strauss released a council package that adds more than $50 million in new priorities for next year.

Much of this new spending is slated to be covered by JumpStart revenue, a payroll tax on the city’s largest employers that was originally passed in 2020 to fund affordable housing. According to mynorthwest.com, the council has increasingly used these funds to fill general fund deficits, making the practice permanent two years after it was intended to be a temporary measure.

The new proposal's budget carries risks for the city's long-term stability. The package pulls approximately $23 million from JumpStart into the general fund by relying on a rosier revenue forecast and a single large tax payment that is not expected to repeat.

The plan also skips deposits into the JumpStart reserve, which serves as a financial cushion for years when tax revenue falls short. By reducing these deposits, the city is essentially drawing down its savings to meet current obligations.

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“If we don’t pay the mortgage on our house, we have nothing,” Pam Jacob told “The Gee and Ursula Show” on KIRO Newsradio.

Jacob, who has run Pam’s Kitchen for 20 years, is closing her business on Nov. 29 after being unable to sustain operations through credit cards and home refinancing. Her situation highlights the precarious position of small businesses compared to the municipal “workarounds” utilized by City Hall.

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The cost of restoring services

The Strauss package includes several items aimed at reversing previous budget cuts, some of which address essential city services. Mayor Wilson’s initial budget reduced fire department overtime to the point that 13 fewer firefighters would be on duty each day.

The council’s new proposal restores that overtime, but the funding mechanism is controversial. To pay for the staffing, the package shrinks the city’s required payments into the firefighters’ pension fund.

While this move does not reduce checks for current retirees, it uses money set aside for future pension obligations to cover this year’s operational bills. This reliance on pension funds to plug immediate budget gaps is a primary concern for analysts tracking the city’s long-term solvency.

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The proposal also includes various community-focused expenditures, many of which are labeled as one-time costs. These include:

$500,000 for murals in the Ballard Brewery District
$3 million for arts programming
A lease for a community garden

Critics note that Seattle has a history of labeling spending as “one-time,” yet every budget since 2020 has opened with a deficit and closed using similar temporary measures.

A looming budget vote

The Seattle City Council is scheduled to vote on the budget committee’s package on Nov. 13. At that meeting, any councilmember has the authority to pull individual items from the package for further debate or removal. The tension lies in whether the council will prioritize replenishing the JumpStart reserve and delaying non-essential spending, or if they will continue to lean on the payroll tax to fund current priorities.

The debate centers on whether the city can continue to operate on a cycle of deficit and temporary infusion. While the Strauss package claims to balance the budget through 2030 without touching emergency funds, the method of using pension contributions and one-time tax spikes is highly controversial.

Pam’s Kitchen closes Nov. 29.

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