Seattle mayor's proposed budget increases public safety spending, no new taxes

The useful part

Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson proposed no new business taxes in her budget plan for next year, instead closing an estimated $175 million budget gap by eliminating 143 positions, most of them vacant. "I have made the difficult decision to transmit a budget without major new revenue," Wilson said in an afternoon speech at the city's main public library branch. "Right now, we don't have good options to raise more progressive revenue that don't also come with great risks.

How it works

• Wilson had said leading up to the release of Tuesday's $9.1 billion budget proposal that she was considering new progressive business taxes, setting off alarm bells in the business community and warnings...
• Our economy and especially our downtown are fragile." Wilson said in that context, raising additional revenue through the city's payroll tax on companies called JumpStart is not the right move.
• Major corporations like Amazon have moved jobs to Bellevue to avoid the JumpStart tax, which applies to companies with payrolls of more than $7 million.
• Wilson's budget plan calls for a 13% increase to the city's police department to about $1.135 billion.
• The general fund would direct 53% of its roughly $2 billion in spending toward public safety.

Details worth keeping

The $68 million increase is supposed to fund 1,...