Incoming Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan hit by failed tax

She opposed a head tax on Seattle’s biggest businesses, but Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan will feel the effects of the failed proposal.

RELATED: Mayor-elect Durkan makes City Hall plans

The Seattle City Council voted to cut nearly $500,000 (four positions) from Durkan’s office staff to partially replace money lost when the employee head tax failed. The vote came a day after the council rejected the head tax with a 5-4 vote.

The budget item that passed on Wednesday divided the council. It moved $436,408 from the mayor’s staffing budget to the Human Services Department. That department would have used funds from the failed head tax to support homelessness programs and contracts.

Councilmember Rob Johnson said the move was “bad form” to cut 1/6 of the mayor’s office as the city faces the shortest mayoral transition period in the city’s history. Others on the council disagreed. Councilmember Kirsten Harris-Talley said the budget move was to cover a 16 FTE deficit in the Human Services Department, which will be overseeing an increase in duties as the city tackles the homelessness crisis.

“The reputation of the mayor coming in is commendable and I know she is very well positioned to manage whichever size staff she has,” Harris-Talley said. “And she has a wonderful 61-member transition team to help her think through this.”

Mayor Tim Burgess — who recently left the council to briefly take over as mayor — immediately reacted to the budget cut, expressing his disapproval of the council’s action.

During this unprecedented period of mayoral transition, we should be coming together to help Mayor-elect Jenny Durkan staff up and hit the ground running on November 28 — just seven business days from now. If all of the proposed cuts are adopted the Council will be reducing the mayor’s budget by approximately 17 percent. This misguided surprise illustrates the harm that can be caused when significant budget decisions are made on the fly without a thorough analysis of impacts.

If in their wisdom, the Council believes these funds are needed for other purposes, and remembering that the Legislative Department’s budget is twice the size of the Mayor’s budget, then the funds should come proportionately from the Mayor’s Office and the Legislative Department.

It’s also important to remember that the Mayor of Seattle is responsible for managing more than 11,000 city employees and directly responsible for overseeing the delivery of city services. The Legislative department has approximately 99 employees.

The city council is still crafting its 2018 budget which is expected to be up for a vote next week.

Head tax

The now failed head tax proposal — supported by council members Mike O’Brien, Kshama Sawant, Lisa Herbold, and Kirsten Harris-Talley — would have placed a $125 per employee fee on companies that earn more than $10 million annually. It was estimated to raise about $25 million a year. The revenue would have paid for homelessness programs and housing. The first version of the tax aimed to tax $100 per employee on businesses that earn more than $5 million annually. Councilmember Sawant proposed doubling the tax.

Those who objected to the tax worried about the council pushing it through too quickly. Others said it lacked transparency and needed to be crafted through a special committee.

The tax, according to its supporters, was primarily going to be used to “alleviate Seattle’s homelessness crisis.”

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