Editorial
Budgeting Seattle without the frills

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Most read articles Most e-mailed articles

The mayor wanted to raise spending 1.3 percent and the council wants 2.6 percent. The council's 2.6 may seem moderate, but in a city struggling to emerge from recession, it is not. It means an additional 1.5-percent tax on water bills, which will fall heavily on struggling businesses and on low-income families with children.

The $6 million is spread out over many things. Some are mandatory, like additions to police and fire pensions; some are in the common-sense category, such as bridge inspection and maintenance. Some are services this page supports, such as $500,000 for the Bookmobile. Other things are good but lower priority, such as night recreation, tree trimming and asthma prevention.

Then there are some clearly wrong ones.

Start with Policy Advocacy, which means, in essence, the salaries of favored private lobbyists. Under this category, Seattle taxpayers have been paying tens of thousands of dollars to the Fremont Public Association, Statewide Poverty Action Network and Welfare Rights Organizing Coalition; the Seattle Human Services Coalition; the Children's Alliance Human Services Advocacy Project, and others. For 2005, the mayor had cut this funding by half; the council now adds back $106,572.

Another questionable entry is Administrative Operations, $132,827. This is a city effort to help people start and run tax-exempt organizations, most of which will be asking the city for money. Again, we are paying people to lobby us.

Perhaps the goofiest council add is Visual Documentation, $138,000. This is to hire photographers to take pictures of construction projects to make a record for historians.

The $6 million also includes $228,000 for the opera house — McCaw Hall — which came up short in its fund raising. That means in Seattle, opera and ballet will partly be funded by raising the people's water bills. More of the cost should be borne by raising the price of tickets.

The council should look at its budget adds soberly, remembering that Seattle is an expensive city, and that many families already struggle. It should scale back the goodies, and the tax on the people.