Mayor Burgess Unveils City’s 2018 Proposed Budget

SEATTLE, Sept. 25 -- Seattle Mayor Edward B. Murray issued the following news release:

Today, Mayor Tim Burgess unveiled his proposed 2018 City of Seattle Budget which amplifies the City's priorities of smart government and regional collaboration. The budget includes an investment to create the Seattle Retirement Saving Program, which provides a cost-effective way for Seattle workers without workplace retirement programs to save for retirement.

The 2018 proposed budget also includes $500,000 in additional resources to support survivors of sexual abuse and $162,000 for the Domestic Violence Firearm Prevention Program. The budget includes significant investments in food security and education to ensure Seattle students are prepared for success in the classroom and in life.

Remarks below, as prepared:

My fellow Seattleites; members of our social justice, social service, and business communities who are with us today; directors of city departments; our City Attorney, Pete Holmes; our former mayor, Council President Bruce Harrell; and all the members of the City Council.

I've been the Mayor of our great city for just one week and I admit I miss being on the 2nd floor with you; my 10 years here were wonderful.

Although we're gathered to begin the important work of ratifying a new city budget, what truly brings us here is service--public service. It was one of the great honors of my life to serve the people of Seattle for three terms on this Council. I consider it an equally high honor to now serve, for the next 64 days, as your mayor.

All of us have been affected by the painful crisis of the last months, especially survivors of sexual assault. I am grateful to look out and see Mary Ellen Stone, who leads the King County Sexual Assault Resource Center, an organization whose vital work I have long supported, as well as Merrill Cousin from the Coalition Ending Gender-Based Violence. I also welcome Jojo Gaon, a member of the Northwest Network of Bi, Trans, Lesbian, and Gay Survivors of Abuse.

We know the terrible harm that can come from sexual abuse, and we know that survivors who are refugees, immigrants, and members of the LGBTQ community can be particularly vulnerable.

We also know the profound grace and strength survivors have shown, often without us knowing the sources of the pain they carry, or even that they carry it at all. That grace and strength inspires me. Jojo, you inspire me. For all affected by the scourge of sexual violence, and for all involved in the particular events that have shaken us so recently, we wish appropriate measures of justice and continued steps forward along a healing path.

To survivors, I want you to know your city government stands with you. We will support you. We will walk with you on that path toward healing.

The work of city government must move forward, too. There are homes and businesses to power, roads to fix, and plenty of our neighbors whose safety depends on public servants who make good governance our highest responsibility, acting with purpose and foresight.

It's one very old bit of foresight that places me here today as your mayor--the foresight of city leaders in the past who wisely planned ahead for times of challenging transition like the one we just faced; they gave us a blueprint for an orderly transfer of executive power.

Back in the 1920s, officials with that same sort of wisdom and foresight looked 120 miles north of this room, into what is now the North Cascades National Park, and began work on the hydroelectric project that today supplies most of Seattle's energy--clean power that keeps these lights on and powers the laptops and smartphones on which some of you may be watching right now.

This kind of wisdom and foresight gave us the Cedar River Watershed, 50 miles east of here in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains, the origin of the clean water that flows down through rural King County and then out of your faucet. When you drink Seattle's water, some of the best in the nation, you are, in a sense, taking in the benefits of good governance and stewardship, as well as an undeniable reality: we are a city united with our broader region.

We are a progressive city--a welcoming community where we so deeply consider the needs of others that we allocate taxpayer dollars not just toward helping people eat, but toward helping them afford higher quality foods that support good health.

The budget I present to you today uses revenue from the new Sweetened Beverage Tax to expand our food security initiatives. It means more of our low-income neighbors will be able to effectively double their buying power at farmer's markets and other venues that offer fresh, organic produce. It means twice as many children from families experiencing food insecurity will be eligible for bags of vegetables and fruits they can take home from school.

These are just two of the many proposals that make this a fair, just, and balanced budget. A budget that pays attention to the basics and reflects the values of Seattle.

As we all know, our city is growing--now 710,000 people strong, with 250,000 more who commute in each day because of our roaring job market and vibrant culture. We need to grow with it. So this budget includes money to increase staffing at the fire dispatch center, so that calls from people experiencing life-threatening emergencies will be answered faster. There's also money for another fire department aid car. That's because help needs to arrive faster as well.

The brave women and men who douse the flames at burning buildings and provide our emergency medical services--many in this force of firefighters are headed for a deserved retirement, often with all the knocks and scrapes one gets along the way in that proud line of work. That's why this budget doubles the number of firefighter recruiting classes so that the next generation can carry on the work of the previous, and at the same time serve our growing population.

I'd ask you to think a moment more about those firefighters. About the importance of providing them with a means to a comfortable, secure retirement after their years of valuable work. We do that for our firefighters, and for all our city staff, through our pension programs.

Now, consider this: Nearly 70 percent of Americans have little more than a few hundred dollars in savings, if any savings at all, never mind any significant amount of money for retirement. In the wealthiest nation in the world this is not good news because retirees without savings will never be able to participate in society as they should. They will instead be constantly worrying: Am I one accident away from homelessness? Can I afford to keep the lights on? Can I keep the heater running?

It's true right here in Seattle as well; 40 percent of our workers have no access to a workplace retirement savings plan.

That's about 200,000 of our fellow Seattleites looking toward their later years with a feeling of financial uncertainty and the constant, low-grade dread that brings. These are people who work hard at restaurants and hair salons, auto repair shops and other small and medium-sized businesses. They keep our city going. According to a 2016 Pew study, they are disproportionately Black, Latino, and Asian. In one of the wealthiest cities in America, we can do better for our workers.

During the Obama administration, I joined with leaders in other major cities to encourage the federal government to make a relatively obscure rule change. It would have cleared a path for our city to automatically enroll workers in a retirement savings plan if their employer doesn't already provide one. Then came Trump. The Republican Congress repealed this rule.

But we've found a way forward. Legislation I am submitting to the Council will create the Seattle Retirement Savings Plan.

Employers without any kind of retirement savings program will enroll their workers in this plan. Those workers can opt out if they wish. They will determine how much of their paycheck will be deposited in their personal I-R-A. They will decide how their funds are invested. When workers change jobs, their I-R-A will follow them. It's portable and exclusively their own.

The Seattle Retirement Savings Plan will help the 200,000 workers in our city with no retirement savings begin building toward comfort and financial security in their later years. It's a pro-business, pro-economic stability, pro-growth, and pro-worker idea. It makes sense, especially for small businesses that, for whatever reason, don't offer retirement saving options to their workers. When we adopt this legislation, Seattle will become the first city in America to implement this type of city-facilitated, privately-administered plan--all without taxpayer support or risk and with minimal costs to employers.

We have also made great strides in improving equity at the other end of life, by providing access to high-quality, affordable preschool for Seattle's young children. The science and sociology is clear: it will have a deep and positive effect on the life trajectory of countless young ones who, through no fault of their own, were born with the opportunity deck stacked against them. Why wouldn't we, as a city, fund an investment that gives greater meaning to the idea that we are all born equal? Why wouldn't we back an initiative that stands to reduce high school drop-out rates, crime rates, and future poverty while also promoting lifelong learning and long-term family health? I was proud to lead the push toward universal preschool, and I was proud to be among the Seattle voters who overwhelmingly chose to fund this initiative.

Councilmembers, the Families and Education Levy and the Seattle Preschool Levy both expire next year. I urge you to place these measures before our voters again so we can continue our strategic and science-driven investments in our children.

There are other strategic investments we can make to help Seattle's children in the crucial cradle-to-kindergarten years that are key to brain development. These years influence how we form relationships, our sense of self, and our future. They are the foundation on which our society is built. This budget expands the Parent-Child Home Program, a proven home visitation effort centered on literacy that brings educational toys, books, and other help to families with young children. This expansion is possible because of the Sweetened Beverage Tax, as well as King County's Best Starts for Kids program and funding from United Way.

The budget also continues the Nurse Family Partnership, which provides in-home consultation visits for low-income families having their first child. The New York Times calls it America's best anti-poverty program. Paying increased attention to these scientifically proven cradle-to-kindergarten initiatives, and looking for ways to invest in more of them, will result in huge dividends for these children later in life.

When people of this city, at whatever stage of their lives, find themselves homeless and in need of a hand, we should also be ready to offer our assistance. The dramatic rise in homelessness that has accompanied our recent, rapid growth is troubling to all of us. It is a challenge to the conscience to see so many fellow Seattleites sleeping outside.

This is yet another emblem of our unsustainable inequality, as well as our failure to properly invest in community mental health, drug and alcohol abuse treatment, and many other parts of the frayed social safety net. And while increased homelessness represents a troubling trend that needs to be reversed, I know it will not be reversed in 64 days. That doesn't mean we will shrug or slacken in our resolve. I am asking today that we expand funding for homeless services to add another outreach team specifically focused on helping people living in vehicles, plus a homeless outreach position at the Seattle Public Libraries.

This will bring our total spending on homeless services up to $63 million next year. But spending more is certainly not enough. We need to make certain those tax dollars are spent wisely and effectively. This is just common sense, and our taxpayers demand it. I will soon submit to the Council legislation that will mandate in law that all expenditures by our Human Services Department utilize outcome-based contracting, identify specific and measurable outcomes, include incentive pay for performance, and continually measure effectiveness. This higher level of public accountability is the right thing to do, a means toward helping more people as urgently and effectively as possible.

We also must assert that this is a city that welcomes employers creating good jobs. We received a jolt a few weeks ago when one of our local companies announced plans to open a second headquarters. Amazon's decision to launch and grow here has brought tremendous benefits and real challenges. We will respond to this Amazon challenge in partnership with King County and other municipal and county governments in our region. I met last week with County Executive Dow Constantine and we agreed to work together--with King County in the lead. We will not only respond to Amazon; we will also form a strategic partnership with others in our region to focus on economic stability and growth.

Jobs matter, and government can help create an environment where businesses can launch and soar, where workers and their families can benefit, where our children can learn the skills needed in the 21st century, and where we can raise the tax revenues necessary to care for our people and implement the values we dearly hold. Our businesses--from the smallest to the largest--are an essential part of making such social benefits possible.

My first job in public service was with the Seattle Police Department. It was the early 1970s, the department was going through grand jury investigations and corruption trials. I decided I wanted to be part of a police reform push that was then being spearheaded by Mayor Wes Uhlman.

As I learned along the way, it's not an easy job. But that's the job: protect and serve. Set a good example. Equally enforce and uphold the law. Treat everyone with dignity and respect. That experience is what has motivated me to pay close attention to how we police Seattle; and we have made great strides in recent years, as the federal monitor's reports clearly demonstrate. This budget ensures we will continue to increase transparency and accountability at our police department, just as we have throughout city government, by establishing an Office of Inspector General for Public Safety and doubling its previously planned number of employees. We will also increase accountability by adding staff to the Community Police Commission, made up of civilian voices from outside City Hall, and by increasing staff at the Office of Police Accountability.

The challenges of policing in our country did not arise in a vacuum. They connect to a broad array of factors, many well beyond the purview of any local law enforcement agency. They connect to the fact that in this country police shootings and police misconduct disproportionately affect Black people. The challenges connect, as well, to the shameful American legacy of slavery, to Jim Crow, to mass incarceration, to the "War on Drugs," to redlining, and to public schools that have and continue to fail Black children.

In this context, and at this time, it is important for someone in my position to say clearly: Black Lives Matter.

Black Lives Matter in policing. Black Lives Matter in education. Black Lives Matter in our economic system. We must squarely face our history of racism and injustice, and, frankly, that's something I don't believe our country has truly done. We will know that we have when all people of color have equal opportunity, equal protection under the law, and never doubt their standing as Americans.

We are on a journey in America when it comes to police reform. We've made progress, for sure, and I'm grateful to the women and men of our police department who have responded so well to our higher expectations. But so much remains to be done. As the federal Department of Justice turns away from this challenge, Seattle will stay the course. We will not be dissuaded and we will not stop. We will get reform right so that all Seattleites may feel safe and secure and have a relationship of trust with their police.

We will also stay the course on combatting domestic violence. Thanks to the work of committed gun policy advocates, who are here today and whose proposals I have strongly supported, Washington State now says that if you abuse your partner, you lose your gun. This is appropriate, because we know how often acts of domestic violence turn into murder. But what's inappropriate is to create such a law without providing resources to ensure that abusers' guns are actually surrendered. This budget fully funds the unit in the City Attorney's office that oversees our local gun forfeiture program, and adds new police detectives to investigate cases. A person who has the courage to report a domestic assault should not have to fear that the law is going to leave them in limbo when it comes to getting the gun out of their abuser's hands.

Nor should a survivor of sexual assault, like Jojo, have to worry that our mayor's office, or any part of our city government, is not sufficiently invested in the task of helping those who come forward to report such abuse. At the recommendation of the King County Sexual Assault Resource Center and the Coalition Ending Gender-Based Violence, my budget adds new money so that publicly funded advocates can meet victims of sexual assault where they are comfortable. It restores money cut in the past from the community-based programs to assist children, teens, and adults experiencing sexual violence. And it invests in a community coalition that is already working to end gender-based violence, but needs help to expand.

This is one of the major ways that government works in service of the public good: By using the budget process to invest in protecting the most vulnerable among us. By pushing against galling inequities that, in the end, harm us all. Getting to the right investment is not always pretty and the details can sometimes get a little dull. But it is a noble pursuit. A nimble, focused government whose dollars come from the people and are spent effectively for the people--that is a noble pursuit.

At the national level, we are now seeing what happens when this noble pursuit is demeaned and de-legitimized, when cynics point to the real flaws and failings of government, promise that they alone can fix it, but in fact have no real agenda other than further defunding and destroying government, slashing necessary programs that benefit others while enriching themselves.

They are right about one thing: government sometimes makes mistakes. But the enemies of government are wrong--dangerously wrong--in saying the answer is to tear down our institutions, shred our norms, violate our senses of civility and decency, abandon our faith in the very things we need to make shared government work: truth-telling, facts, science, reason. Let's remember: this is how tyranny becomes acceptable. This is how democracy falters. We have seen it before.

I am proud to have grown up in a city that knows it needs to stand up to the bigotry, selfishness, and destruction that has gained an alarming hold in our nation's capital.

As I grew into a man in Seattle, and then an even older man, and as my city changed around me, I changed, too. My political views, my religious perspective, my perspective on social issues; these all changed. It wasn't an easy journey. It rarely is. But I have been grateful for the opportunities given to me, along the way, by public service. The opportunity to make my life into, I hope, one that has bettered the lives of others. The opportunity to help make Seattle a rejection of one of the biggest lies told by our president.

No one, alone, can fix it.

What city government at its best shows, what our city at its best shows, is that we only ever really fix things when we fix them together.

So, let's now get to work on this budget and all the other business of bettering our city. Let's move ahead with smart, targeted actions that exhibit a foresight worthy of our positions. From where I stand, I know: we only have a brief time. But really, that's true for all of us, no matter where we stand. May we all move ahead with purpose to serve the common good, doing the best we can in the time we have, in the hope that future generations will look back and say we did them proud.