The Business Community Praises Mayor Wilson’s Budget – what’s up with that?

In a collective sigh of relief, the leaders of the Seattle Metro Chamber, Challenge Seattle, and Washington Roundtable issued a joint statement: “Business Leaders Welcome Mayor Wilson’s Focus on Fiscal Responsibility and Public Safety in Proposed Budget”

That’s code for no new taxes and no major cuts to police.

Their reaction is understandable. Wilson has spent her activist career calling for “progressive revenue.” She was a member of the Progressive Revenue Task Force on Housing and Homelessness in 2017-2018 and the Revenue Stabilization Workgroup in 2022-23 and she talked about new taxes all during her campaign and deep into this year.

In presenting her budget, Wilson herself said, "I have made the difficult decision to transmit a budget without major new revenue. Right now, we don't have good options to raise more progressive revenue that don't also come with great risks.”

That “we don't have good options” part is code for “I would’ve raised taxes if there was anything good on the list to choose from.” And does she have lists – it’s her specialty.

The easiest option, of course, would be “dialing up” the payroll tax rate or spreading the tax out or some combo thereof. But JumpStart’s been done and it kind of has a bad rap so she discounted it.

Next up would be a Seattle capital gains tax: it’s got legal precedent and has some name familiarity as a winner. But it’s too volatile, with revenue projections ranging very roughly $18 million to $31 million a year – and you can’t contract on that kind of instability.

The others need state authorization, wouldn’t raise enough money, or come with some other problem. (How do we know? The Revenue Stabilization Workgroup report said so!)

So as much as business leaders may want to believe that all the collaborative conversations with the mayor led to a change of heart, the reality is that pickings are just too slim for the hassle (or raising new taxes would’ve been done before).

But here’s the deal: Seattle’s already riding pretty high off Harrell’s two new taxes last year! The public safety sales tax was projected to bring in $39M/yr and the B&O restructure (which jacked the rates for businesses making over $2M gross/yr by about 40%) $39M/yr.

That’s 78 million new dollars every year! That oughta do it for a while. As for the focus on public safety, that’s a little overblown.